A Star in the Night
by SweetMotherHaveMercy
Summary: An orphaned American witch finds herself immersed in troubling times at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As the strings of fate begin to gather towards a tragic climax, she must embrace her nature to keep one dark-haired wizard from joining her as an orphan. Harry Potter - Maruader's Era AU fic. Eventual SBxOC and JPxLE.
1. Chapter 1 - Massachusetts 1972

**Chapter 1**

Lights were popping at the edges of her periphery. The world around her had slowed to a crawl and it seemed her brain had halted all together. She found one arm moving of its own accord, reaching until it hit the door frame.

 _Handle. You need the handle_.

She watched her hand slide down the door until her fingers curled around the cold metal of the handle and she pushed with all the weight she could muster.

 _I have to get out. Get out._

Once the door had swung open, the clarity of her mind started coming into sharper focus. Steam was pouring around her from the crumpled hood of the car. She could hear the hiss of the dying engine and liquid dripping onto the pavement.

 _GET OUT!_

Within her mind, her brain was panicking, but it also seemed to be occupying a separate compartment than wherever the controls of her limbs were, because she still seemed unable to move at anything faster than a glacial pace.

 _No-Maj cars blow up when they get hit! Get out! What if it catches on fire! Get out! Get out!_

Her shoes hit the pavement and she flung herself away from the car as ragged breaths started wracking through her body. She clutched her hand to her chest and ran the other one shakily through her hair.

 _Mom and dad... They're in the car!_

She spun back around, her eyes piercing the front seat of the car. The windshield was gone. In fact, the entire front end was nearly gone. She wasn't sure how many times they had spun, but when they had finally come to a halt, it looked like she was the only passenger who had remained within the confines of the vehicle.

Her knees began to shake, she couldn't feel if her feet were connected to the ground anymore but her legs felt leaden. She followed the lines of the shattered windshield and scanned for her parents.

 _Apparated out. They were right next to each other. They apparated._

She was almost convinced, when her gaze fell upon a flutter of robin's egg blue fabric that laid in a ditch on the side of the road about 60 feet from the car.

"Mom?"

The blackness that was threatening at the edges of her periphery closed in around her vision and she felt her body hit the pavement.

Theia woke up in a hospital bed, a medi-witch bustled around the room.

"'Scuse me." Her voice was so faint, she wasn't sure if she had said it out loud or just thought about it. So she tried again, "Excuse me."

The medi-witch's head popped up from the bottled potion she had been shaking and muttering at. "OH! Dearie you're awake! Here! Drink this!" She stuck a straw into the top of the bottle and held it out in front of Theia and helped her drink from it. "There you go, that's it." Theia's eyelids felt heavy but she kept drinking the sour tasting potion. "You can go back to sleep in just a second, dearie! We need your name, do you remember your name?"

Through the fog that Theia's mind was swimming in, she remembered her voice again and croaked, "Theia. Nyx. Theia Nyx."

"Goodness. Nyx." The nurse tutted, and was fighting to keep a professionally muted facial expression while she fixed the pillows behind Theia. Theia could taste the slight panic at her name in the air around her... or maybe that was just the potion's aftertaste. "Alright dearie, we will call someone for you. Are you enrolled at Ilvermony?"

"Third year."

"Okay, now you can rest, here's something for you. Dreamless sleep. Drink up, it isn't as bad as the last one I promise." The medi-witch handed her another bottled potion with a straw and Theia began to drink. After a couple gulps, she stopped, a panic straining her addled brain.

"My parents! Mom, Dad. Where are my parents?"

"You've nearly finished the potion dear, you need to finish it for the dreamlessness to set in properly. The dreams on an unfinished dose otherwise can be quite unsettling." The Medi-Witch Academy in Boston had taught her not to stress out patients who were still recovering by answering these questions bluntly. At least not without others there to help walk her through what had happened, or someone there to comfort her at the very least. The small girl in front of her looked so distressed but she obeyed the request and finished the potion, before her head slumped onto her pillow.

 _My god... A Nyx. An orphaned Nyx. The papers are going to have a field day._

The medi-witches shoulders locked, and she stood up straight as she made to leave the room. _No one is going to bother this poor girl._ The first thing she did upon leaving the room was to notify her charge MW, privately of course- some of these new girls could be such gossips- and come up with a plan to protect the young girl's privacy. The papers were likely to swarm on the hospital once they caught wind that the wizarding couple that had perished in that crash were Mr. and Mrs. Nyx... and their eldest daughter had been in the car with them. All afternoon her mind flitted back to the hospital room where she had left Theia, and words from the report from the accident scene flashed alongside it.

 _'No-maj car found smoking... Windshield missing and front-end totaled... Patient appears unscathed... No injuries found.'_

 _Unscathed... how on earth?_

She checked on Theia hourly, the potion seemed to have worked, and she had given her a dose to keep her under for another 8 hours. A couple reporters, both in disguise and forthright, came in during her shift, and each of them was turned away and escorted from the premises without so much as glimpsing a corner of Theia's room.

* * *

"By order of the court of the Massachusetts Branch of the MCUSA, Miss Theia Zoe Nyx is hereby declared an emancipated citizen. She remains the Head of House to the Nyx Family and Galene Family. I declare this session ended." The gavel next to the High Wizard banged loudly while a simultaneous hiss escaped her aunt's lips. Theia didn't look, she didn't need to know how much hate was boiling over in her Aunt and Uncle's eyes. It didn't matter anymore. None of it did. She was free. Nine months later, and she was finally free.

She stood with as much poise as her 14-year-old-self could muster, and went to join Great Aunt Adrastea with Isla. Aunt Addie hugged Isla tightly and thanked her profusely over and over while Theia's eyes remained unfocused on the chaos around her. Isla glanced down at her, and drew her attention back to them.

"I can't thank you enough Isla..." Tears brimmed at the corners of Theia's eyes. She hadn't realized how happy she had been until Isla's kind blue eyes had turned down at her with a tone of gloating happiness.

"We showed them Theia, you did it honey. It was all you." Her arms swung around her into another one of her big, squishy hugs. Isla had on her familiar musky perfume and the same green robes she had been wearing when they had met all those months ago. Theia wiped the slow tears streaming down her face, and turned to Aunt Addie who was laughing and crying all at the same time. She chuckled and held an arm out to welcome the older woman into their collective embrace. All three girls hugged and laughed and made plans to _finally_ go get some food.

It was a happy day at last. The only thing it was missing was Leon. But Theia figured she would have to get used to that. She was emancipated, but still not old enough to be his guardian. He would have to stay here. With them. She threw the thought viciously from her mind. She had won. It was over. Leon would come of age in 7 years and then he could do whatever he wanted. Then he could split the responsibility with her and not worry about them trying to weasel him into or out of anything.

When the girls slid into the booth of their favorite diner, Aunt Addie put on her 'business-face' that had always intimidated Theia as a little girl when she had visited from Britain. She knew she had something to say by the sight of that look without even having to probe the mood she was emitting into the aura around her.

"Now, one battle down. Only one last thing to sort out. You've shown great maturity my darling Theia, strength and maturity that your long line of ancestors would be proud to be represented by. Have you considered my offer?"

Theia straightened her shoulders and brought her dark eyes up to meet her Great Aunt squarely. 'Fake it until you make it' had been her mantra throughout the legal process to win her emancipation. _Pretend you're okay and you're ready for this and eventually you'll start to believe it yourself._

"Yes. I'd like to. But where will I go to school... I'm a year behind now."

"Hogwarts is reputed to be the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. With your name and _talent_ ," Her look grew pointed to emphasize what she was unsubtly hinting at, "I am sure we will be able to implore Albus Dumbledore to find you a place."

Theia's throat tightened, but she knew Aunt Addie was right. _He'll have to know, just like the headmaster at Ilvermony had to know. It's precautionary._

"Wait... The Albus Dumbledore? The European war hero? Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore?"

Isla's eyes were saucers as she set down her mug of coffee onto the table.

"That one precisely, yes. Theia, I can send him a letter on your behalf, but I would also suggest that you write one yourself. He may want to meet with you before accepting your transference."

"Should I ask my old Head of Thunderbird House to write as well?" Theia swirled the striped straw around in her milkshake and ran the other hand through her hair.

"Yes... brilliant my dear. Yes, I think that would be very good. He'll need your grades from Ilvermony, but a testament to your character from them would probably also help to sway him as well. Good thinking." Adrastea's eyes shown with pride for this little girl in front of her for what seemed to be the 500th time since she had come to Massachusetts to help her win her emancipation.

"See you've already got this whole 'Head of House' thing down. You know what you're doing. Trust yourself." Isla leaned over and whispered at Theia, throwing her arm around her and squeezing the petite teen.

"Alright, will you help me? Proofread I mean?"

"Of course, we are with you every step of the way."

Theia suppressed the blush at the overwhelming support and pushed down the familiar longing emotion that was riding up inside her.

* * *

"Okay, how do I look? This isn't too fancy? I don't want him to think I'm a brat... Oh my god what if I am! What if I say something wrong! What if he says no?!"

Theia was pacing again, she ran her hands over her skirt to avoid tangling them in her hair and receive another chiding from Aunt Addie.

"You're fine. Quite fine." Adrastea was smiling despite herself, she had known Dumbledore many years ago before he had sold his family's house in Godric's Hollow, and he was never one to pass up on exploring something fascinating. Thankfully, her great-niece was nothing short of fascinating. "Breathe, child."

Theia muttered like she couldn't hear anyone's reassurances. She hadn't been this nervous in her entire life. Her whole future hung on this interview. He had to like her. He was going to like her, _goddamn it_. She didn't realize that she hadn't been taking regular breaths until a thin hand crept its way into hers to stop her pacing.

A younger version of her grandmother's ocean blue eyes were staring up at her kindly. "You'll be great, Teetee. He'll love you." Leon was smiling at her despite the maelstrom that was wreaking havoc within her. He was always so steadying like this. He grounded her and let her catch her breath and remember where she was and _who_ she was. He didn't really want her to leave, he just wanted her to be happy, and he knew she wouldn't be happy here, living on her own in America. She might be the head of the both of their ancient family houses, but she was only 14 and he understood that was too young to play at being a grown-up permanently.

"It's time dear. Breathe, you'll be alright. Just be honest." Aunt Addie placed her hand on Theia's shoulder as the clock struck 3 o'clock and the chimes went off around them. Theia nodded, squeezed Leon's hand, and turned to walk to the their fireplace that had been extended to travel cross-Atlantic so she could reach Hogwarts. Just before she dipped her hand into the floo powder on the mantel, she twirled around and vaulted herself into Leon's arms for one last good luck hug. He chuckled as she enveloped him in warmth that took him off guard. She was still quite small despite having stopped growing a little while back, but she was still about half a foot taller than he was. Everyone assured him he would catch up within the next couple years, but in the meantime, he was perfectly happy to receive her big hugs that felt so eerily similar to the ones their mother had given them so many countless times.

When she broke away, she still looked like the small 14-year-old girl that she was, but she was steeled, ready, to take on one of the greatest wizards of the era. Well, not literally. But so to speak.

Inside a whoosh of the strange purple flames Theia lost her breath and waited for her feet to hit the solid floor of the receiving fireplace.

The office that she stepped into once they did was... marvelous. There was absolutely no other word for it.

Trinkets, devices, and magical items were littered throughout the room. The magic of this place was so ancient and _pungent_ , in a way that no room within Ilvermony could ever dream to achieve. She looked up and was greeted by smiling, expectant faces of old witches and wizards that resided within what seemed to be hundreds of paintings on the walls. She didn't realize what she must have looked like until she heard a small snigger across the room to her left. Reflexively, her mind reached out into the ether of the room and felt two distinct auras, one resolutely powerful, wise, and aged, _Professor Dumbledore_ , and the other blindingly bright, strong, and had a distinctly untapped depth.

"Ah, yes, Miss Nyx. Welcome! You are right on time." The old wizard who must have been no one but Albus Dumbledore himself was smiling at Theia with twinkling clear blue eyes behind a pair of half-moon glasses. "Mr. Black, I would advise you to make your way down to the Common Room now, and make sure everyone is prepared to attend dinner. I heard that they will be serving chocolate mousse with dinner tonight." His tone of voice was with giddy with child-like excitement.

The dark-haired boy suppressed another snigger but did nothing to hide a broad smirk as he nodded at the Headmaster and excused himself from the office. He glanced at Theia as he glided across the room and she mirrored a small smirk back at him. Just as he reached the door, Dumbledore spoke again, "Oh, and Mr. Black." As the boy turned around, his long hair fell into his eyes, he effortlessly flipped it out of his face with a small sideways flick of his head. Theia's heart skipped and she swallowed harder than she should have. "I find that the simplest pleasures, such as a daily dose of chocolate, can brighten the darkest of moods and mend the greatest sores."

"Yes Professor." The boy gave another bright smirk and nodded as he backed out of the doorway and closed the door behind him, his eyes flicked to Theia inquisitively in the half a second before he disappeared behind the dark oak barrier.

Theia reluctantly turned her head back towards the headmaster, and tried not to let her nerves show on her face. She found that he was nearly as fascinating as all of the trinkets around the room. He had on deep teal robes littered with embroidered silver constellations. His long, white beard was most of the way down his chest, and he had a couple of gold and periwinkle tassels tied onto it. An image of braiding his beard like the dwarves from the no-maj fantasy books she had read last summer flashed into her head and her nerves were calmed for the moment while she tried to reign herself in from letting out a loud laugh. She let the happiness leak into her eyes as she walked up to shake his hand, and he smiled back warmly.

"It's very nice to meet you Professor Dumbledore. Thank you for having me today." Aunt Adrastea had told her not to try and charm him into liking her, that getting him to accept her lied more in getting him to be intrigued by her than in him appreciating her manners. Theia just didn't know how else to introduce herself to a grown up though, so she stuck to her comfort-zone courtesies. They appeared to be working, because Dumbledore's eyes seemed to be laughing a bit when he returned her greeting.

"Good afternoon Miss Nyx, I expect your trip here was uneventful?"

"Yes sir, it only took about an hour for the man back home to modify our floo to reach across the ocean. The purple flames were still a surprise though." Theia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she sat down in the chair he offered her in front of his desk.

Dumbledore chuckled at her frankness, "Yes magic can be quite marvelous at times can't it? It's the littlest things that I find to be the most surprising sometimes." A beacon of hope shone within Theia, _Let me be one of them!_ He continued after a slight pause, and was peering at her over the top of his glasses. "So Miss Nyx, I was intrigued to see your letter requesting a transfer. Ilvermony is the forefront school in North America. It's not every day one would want to leave such a school in the middle of their educational career. Hogwarts hasn't had a student transfer in a fair number of centuries I'd expect."

"Yes sir..." Theia focused on not fumbling with her wording, she had known he would want to know why she was so adamant to come here that she would have 3 different people write letters on her behalf. She exhaled and tried not to let her voice shake, "My parents passed away last year. In a car crash. I wa-... I was with them. Um... I didn't attend Ilvermony last year and I don't have anyone to live with back in America since being emancipated, and my Great-Aunt Adrastea lives over here in Britain and she offered to take me in. But she doesn't feel up to home-schooling me. So... yea." Theia was sure no one had ever in the entire history of humanity used the word 'and' so many times in one sentence and that he was absolutely going to laugh her out of his office for being so inarticulate. But she swallowed the lump in her throat and waited for him to reply. _Straighten up, it's too early for a panic attack. I just got here_. Dumbledore looked very solemn, but not stern.

"Yes I believe that was reported in the paper when it happened. I am very sorry for your loss, Miss Nyx."

Theia's eyes brimmed up while she sucked in a breath and attempted to blink back the tears before they formed. She nodded her thanks and lifted up a corner of her mouth to smile at him. "Thank you sir." Her voice sounded thick. _Damn it._

"I've reviewed your transcript from Ilvermony, you were a member of Thunderbird house. I have heard that the sorting process there is a bit different from our own..."

His curiosity seemed to be peaked so Theia indulged him happily at the change in topic. "Well I wouldn't know how it differs sir, but I know it's based on what Hogwarts does. I was quite nervous when I first went, not sure which house would want to choose me since my family doesn't have any propensity towards any particular house. If I'm entirely honest, I was hoping for Pukwudgie..."

"Pukwudgie? How fascinating. Why that house in particular?"

"Well my grandmother was a healer, and I rather like the idea of becoming one myself. The house represents the 'heart,' and they say that people who would be good as healers are picked by Pukwudgie. It's the house that was named and lead by the Nomaj founder."

Dumbledore's eyes lost their sparkle at the use of the word 'nomaj' in Theia's explanation. Aunt Adrastea had told Theia that he might be slightly suspicious of her due to her blood status as a pureblood and the current political climate in Britain but Theia didn't quite understand if she had said something wrong.

"Nomaj, I believe that is what we refer to as a 'muggle' over here?"

"Yes sir, my Aunt Adrastea said they mean the same thing."

"How are the current muggle relations in America, Miss Nyx?"

Theia furrowed her brow in confusion, but quickly composed herself as she answered. "We live in close proximity to Nomaj's sir, since the magical communities were built alongside the founding of the Nomaj country, we don't have established safe-communities the same way European wizarding communities exist." She thought back to when she had visited Aunt Adrastea in Godric's Hollow with her family when she was 9. She had taken them to the wizarding shops that were in the village and she was so excited that they could exist so blatantly among the Nomaj's. She had also been perplexed why all the wizards and witches she had met on that trip were dressed in such traditional magical clothes all the time... When she had asked an older couple why they were wearing wizarding robes around instead of Nomaj clothes which were easier to wear anyways, she had been confused and angered by their outraged reaction. Her parents had quickly whisked her away from that conversation before her temper ran away with her but the memory still left a sour taste in her mouth. "I don't have much experience with the British wizarding community but the attitude in America seems more... relaxed I suppose? But growing up in it makes it hard to notice I think."

"Well assessed Miss Nyx." The sparkle had returned to his eyes, but his face remained stern. "Forgive me, I must be blunt with you."

Theia stiffened and straightened herself up to her full, rather unassuming height.

"The current climate surrounding muggles and muggleborn witches and wizards by the pureblood community is growing increasingly agitated. Does your family abide by old rules and views of muggleborns?"

Aunt Addie hadn't prepared her for this question, she had said Dumbledore preferred to address things in roundabout conversations, alluding to what he was trying to get at before addressing anything head on. Which she noted as very un-Gryffindor of him. In this moment, Theia let the pure confusion flood her face while she grasped for an answer inside her head. She came up short.

"I don't know what you mean sir... I... It's not something my parents ever mentioned I don't think... I.. I can't remember them ever..." Her eyebrows were knit together in frustration with her lack of an answer. She was sure that she wasn't going to have the answer he wanted, but she was being honest. They never had mentioned anything about Nomaj's or Nomaj-born wizards. She lifted her dark eyes up to his and felt the tiniest prod against the edge of her mind.

"That is answer enough Miss Nyx." Dumbledore had held his hand up to her which stopped her reeling mind in its tracks, but he hadn't broken eye contact with her and by the time the thought occurred to her, his eyes had grown infinitesimally wider. _Legilimency._ Theia recognized the bewildered reaction despite the subtlety in his change in expression.

She was shocked but her mind reached out of its own accord and gauged his reaction in the aura surrounding him.

"It's called a Celestial, Professor."

Dumbledore blinked and she felt his connection to her mind break. The emotions swirling around Dumbledore included surprise, wonder, but most of all, pure, unadulterated intrigue. Regardless of how potent his emotions seemed to Theia, he remained outwardly composed, only betrayed by the dancing his eyes were doing while he wrestled with what he had just witnessed within her mind.

"I believe my aging brain is beginning to fail me, the name sounds familiar, but I haven't a clue what that entails. Would you care to enlighten an old man?"

Theia gave a winning smile, if there was a time to charm, it was now. _Feed into the intrigue_ , Aunt Addie had told her. She would gladly oblige if it meant coming to study at this particular castle.

"It's a wizarding anomaly. My mom said it was kind of like Metamorphagi or Seers. That if a witch or wizard is born as one, they have abilities that other witches and wizards can't train or learn how to do."

"Marvelous. What are those abilities?"

"Well... I can manipulate Ether."

"Ether?"

"Umm... Yea. It's an intangible thing... the soul of the planet and the power that exists all around us. The Nomaj's call it gods or heaven or whatever. But wizards produce magic by forcing their will through the ether. When you cast a charm or transfigure an object, you're pushing your will into the ether to get the result you want. I can just also pull things out of it, which an ordinary wizard can't. Seers come the closest when they pull a prophecy out of the ether. But they can't control their access to it the same way a Celestial can."

"So this allows you to read auras the way Seers discuss them?"

"Yes... Sorry. I don't really do it on purpose. It's reflexive."

Dumbledore chuckled and leaned forward to get a better look at the small teenage witch in front of him. This was the last thing he would have ever expected, his mind was soaring as he grappled with the concept and possibilities.

"They died out though. The last one that existed was about a thousand years ago, probably around the same time that Hogwarts was being founded. She was my great, great, great, great ancestor. Iris Nyx. I would be surprised if anyone had heard of them though. They don't exist in much literature, we have the majority of the references back in the library at my house."

"I see. I deplore bragging but Miss Nyx, as you might expect, I am not your average wizard. I was overly fond of legends and magical myths in my youth, so my having heard of the term shouldn't surprise too many people I'd expect. Pepper imp?" He reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out a small bowl of the black candies and eyed them mischievously as he picked one out and popped it into his mouth. He slid the bowl to Theia and she tentatively reached for one. After they had both enjoyed a couple of candies in amiable silence, he continued. "Is that the extent of your extra-magical abilities as a Celestial? Reading auras?" His eyebrow quirked up the tiniest bit, a challenge to see if she would lie to him. She felt like his gaze would pierce her very soul, but she could feel that he wasn't using Legilimency on her.

"No, Professor... It's a broad range of things they can do. We can pull out memories, or shades of people and events that either have happened or are very likely to. My first memory of it was when I pulled out a song that hadn't been written yet and was playing it for my little brother in his nursery so he would stop crying... Everything is connected within the ether so the Nomaj's got it right when they said time was just a concept. And... spells, I- well I can't- but there are records of Celestials being able to manipulate the path of spells cast by themselves and other wizards."

The crystalline blue of Dumbledore's eyes grew murky behind his half-moon glasses, not very many wizards were fond of hearing that their magic could be manipulated by someone else, even after they had cast it. It was a dark concept that Theia didn't particularly like to think on.

"I imagine with aging, and necessity, such profound abilities will come to you."

"Perhaps sir."

"Again Miss Nyx, do forgive my bluntness. These are growing to be troubling times and your branch of extraordinary magic cannot be denied. It would make you a very valuable, and therefore coveted, asset in the coming war."

"By which side are you referring to, sir?"

Dumbledore chuckled, "Why both of course, Miss Nyx." His expression sobered and Theia tried to remain steady, "Coming to Hogwarts could very well put you in more danger than any sane person might be comfortable with."

Theia chewed on the inside of her lip as she fought with how to phrase this properly.

"I would say that I understand Professor... but I don't imagine many 14 year olds do."

"Wisely said my dear."

Theia held her breath, the decision was coming, she could feel him mulling it over in front of her. She held his gaze with as much dignity as she could gather and when she felt the tiniest prods to the front of her mind again, her mind flew into the ether between them as she tried to drop any and all inadvertently placed shields it had constructed around her. _Please find what you need to say yes. Please. I have no where else to go..._

After what felt like the passing of an eon, Theia's breath caught in her throat as he finally spoke, "I shall have my Deputy Headmistress send you an owl with a list of school supplies you'll need for the coming term, if you would be so kind as to forward your address on this continent over to us. You'll be starting your third year here with us. I'll arrange for your sorting on the first night of term separately from the first year's ceremony."

"Thank you sir!" Theia's eyes brimmed again, and she choked back the urge to ball with every fiber of her being. _Don't cry you ninny! He'll take it back!_

They stood up and he walked her back to the fireplace for her to floo back to America and tell her Aunt and brother the good news. Just as they stepped in front of the fireplace, Dumbledore cleared his throat, "One last thing Miss Nyx," _Oh my god... He was kidding. I'm too dangerous. It was a trick..._ "Any student, who finds it in their heart to try, will always find a home at Hogwarts."

"Thank you sir. Truly." Theia gave him a heartfelt, watery-eyed smile and chuckled at her own absurdity. He smiled warmly down at her and gave her a small pat on the back as she reached for a handful of floo powder. She spoke her home address clearly, and stepped into the purple flames.

 _Holy shit... I'm going to Hogwarts._


	2. Chapter 2 - Godric's Hollow 1973

**Chapter 2**

"Are you just about ready to go dear?" Adrastea had stuck her head through the door to Theia's new room. She found the girl dressed in her usual American muggle-wear, which today seemed to consist of a dusty purple sundress and a pair of white trainers. Had they been anywhere but a rather ancient wizarding community Adrastea felt she would have blended in perfectly with the young muggle crowd, with the exception of her wand poking out behind her ear.

"Yea, I think so. Is it okay to wear this? I only really have formal dress robes... or my school uniform." Theia looked uncertain as she looked up from the mirror she was sitting in front of. She had been inspecting her face and hair that puberty was doing weird things to. She felt out of proportion to herself, and her hair was becoming less and less tamable with each passing day. But this was the face and hair she had so she was just trying to grapple with growing to like it.

"We will have to go to town and purchase a couple of casual robes, but for today that should be just fine." Euphemia had owled her this morning and it seemed that her son James, who was of an age with Theia, had gotten a new quidditch broom and was unlikely to be coaxed from it for today's luncheon. "I'm going to floo over in 3 minutes, meet me in the sitting room when you're ready."

"Is it okay if I walk? You said it wasn't that far right?"

"Yes, it should take you about 20 minutes, I would leave as soon as you can manage and I will see you there." Adrastea's eyebrows had shot up at the request but considering the independence Theia had fought for over the last couple months, she couldn't admit to being surprised that she would want to venture out on her own so soon.

Theia had been in Godric's Hollow for nearly a week now, and hadn't been able to explore the little wizarding town yet, and she was starting to get antsy. She had loved it the last time she had been here but with all of the chaos of moving her life across the ocean, she had found herself cooped up in this new house with her great-aunt for far too long. This lunch would be the first outing she would attend this summer, but she had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't be her last. Aunt Addie loved to socialize but her version of it was a bit... aged. If Theia was honest with herself, she wasn't really looking forward to the luncheon itself, and was more than a little nervous about the fact that it was a very poorly concealed "play-date" for her and the other young wizard that lived across the town. _What if he was weird? What if she was weird?_ She just hoped he liked quidditch as much as most teenage boys did, cause at least then they would have something to talk about and maybe do.

She stepped out of the gate, and onto the cobblestone street, squinting at the bright midday sun. She felt like she lived in a story book now. None of the other girls at Ilvermony would believe she lived in this quaint cottage with ivy winding up the chimney and a magical garden in the front yard for all to see. Hell, _she_ couldn't believe she lived here.

It was a Friday so the town was bustling as she meandered her way through it. Getting lost always made her nervous but she figured if she got too turned around she could just ask one of the wizards on the street or a shop owner which way the Potter Mansion was. How many mansions could one town have after all?

She didn't think she would ever get over how cool it was for an exclusively wizarding community to exist, let alone to live in one. People just walked around with blatant magic! Or rather she supposed it would be considered blatant in America at least. The average No-Maj would probably have to be paying very close attention at the right moment to catch outright spells being cast and objects acting strangely. But still, each of the shops housed owls, there was an ad for butterbeer in one of the local pub windows, and there was even an apothecary! Theia had to remind herself once or twice that she really shouldn't be _that_ late to this luncheon since it was essentially a welcoming party for her.

She was strolling down the lane that lead to the Potter Estate when she heard a whooping sound off in the distance. She stood still and listened intently for a few moments when she heard another and a small smile crept its way across her face. She followed her ears and found herself at the edge of a field to the left of a rather impressive looking mansion. Her curiosity overpowered her manners in that moment and she continued forward until she saw a boy with windblown hair speeding around on a broom, throwing a quaffle through some makeshift practice hoops at the other end of the field.

"Dad this broom is EPIC! Did you see that dive? I can go at least twice as fast! Slytherin won't know what hit them!"

His cheeks were red with excitement as he shouted animatedly at the man standing beneath one of the practice hoops. He looked like an older version of the boy, with tousled salt and pepper hair and matching horn-rimmed glasses. He was wearing expensive-looking burgundy robes, while the boy had on a red and gold striped quidditch practice jersey. She found herself chuckling along with the older man at the boy's overwhelming enthusiasm. At the sound of her laugh, both Potter men looked up and noticed their audience.

"Ah! You must be Miss Theia!" The older man boomed as he strode across the field towards her, his hand outstretched as he approached her. She expected him to shake it heartily, he looked like a robust sort of man that would grip your hand too tight without realizing. But she found herself semi-stricken when he took her hand gently and bowed in front of her. For half a second, she thought he was making fun of her but his face remained earnestly jovial as he straightened back up. So she did the only thing she knew how to do in that situation: she curtsied.

"Good day sir, it's wonderful to meet you. Are you Mr. Potter?"

"I am, Fleamont Potter at your service! And this is my boy, James... James! I've not made you change like your mother requested, so get over here and greet our new neighbor properly at the very least!"

Although he was shouting, his tone of voice couldn't be misconstrued for chastising his son, and it didn't seem that he needed to. James landed his broom a couple yards away from them and walked over briskly, a broad smile still plastered across his face. His glasses were slightly skewed over sparkling hazel eyes that brightened up the air around him. He stood an inch or two taller than Theia and mimicked his father and took her hand, but only nodded his head at her instead of dropping into the full bow.

"Nice to meet you, Theia was it? You're the new girl coming to Hogwarts this year?"

Theia suppressed a slight flush, 'the new girl' was going to be her title, probably for the next 5 years, since there weren't likely to be any more transfer students to take over from her. "Yep. I'm starting as a third year in the fall."

"Me too! D'you know your house yet?"

Theia flushed again, she only knew two of the houses, Gryffindor and Slytherin; that was all she had picked up from Aunt Addie's prep for her interview with Dumbledore. "Uh... no. Professor Dumbledore said I would be sorted on the first night of term. Separate from the first years."

"Oh well thank Merlin for that! Can you imagine standing with all the ickle firsties waiting to be sorted in front of everyone? Those Slytherin prats would have a field day."

"James..." Mr. Potter's eyes flashed dangerously for the first time, but it quickly melted when James ducked his head and mumbled a short apology. "I best be heading in, your mother will brew me alive if I miss the entire lunch to practice with you. I'll let her and your aunt know you've arrived, Theia. It was a pleasure meeting you my lady. James, make her feel at home and try not to smother her in questions." He shot a wink at Theia and clapped James on the shoulder before walking off towards the back of the house where Theia supposed the party was being hosted.

"...So what house are you in?" Theia immediately felt stupid for asking when she glanced down and saw a small emblem with a lion and 'Gryffindor' embroidered on the chest of his jersey. James followed her line of sight and tapped the emblem with his finger.

"Gryffindor, course. Runs in the family. Best house at Hogwarts." He had a cheeky grin and was trying to lean casually with his broom slung over his shoulder, but in his current stance the large broom dwarfed him and as he tried to readjust his grip he twisted his footing and stumbled sideways. Theia scoffed and chuckled as she brought her hand up to cover her mouth.

"Is that a new broom? Comet 360? I heard those are supposed to have great stopping and an enhanced turning ability. I read they can do a full 360 pivot in a tighter circle than any other model. It's why they named it that." Theia figured changing the subject was safer than continuing to openly laugh at the only potential friend she was likely to have for the summer.

"Yeah... it is! Do you play?" The spark reignited in James' eyes faster than Theia could have ever believed possible and she had to refrain from laughing again. Teenage boys were almost too easy to impress.

"I was a seeker on the Thunderbird team at Ilvermony. Youngest player on any of the teams while I was there, boys included."

"Boys included? Why wouldn't they be included? Do boys not play quidditch in America?"

The idea that there might be boys out in the world that didn't have an undying love for the best magical sport on the planet looked to be viscerally offensive to James. His eyes bulged and his voice shot up an octave. He caught himself however, and cleared his throat while he waited for Theia's answer.

"Of course boys play! Every house has a boys team and a girls team. Just like everywhere else..."

"Oh... At Hogwarts there is just the one house team. I think that's how most European schools do it."

"So then what team do the girls get to play on?" Anger bubbled up in Theia's chest, she had dealt with self-righteous jerks back at Ilvermony that told her the girls teams weren't worth watching unless they brought back skirts for them to play in. Admittedly, James looked more confused than smug like those other boys had, like he genuinely didn't understand what she was asking.

"...The house team. Gryffindor has a girl chaser and last year we had a seventh year girl keeper, but she'll have to be replaced since she graduated." James ruffled the hair at the back of his head and readjusted his glasses. This new girl seemed to have a temper akin to one he knew quite well in the form of a certain vexing redhead.

It was Theia's turn to balk at what James was saying. She blushed at her temper flaring so easily, she had to be better about that, Mom had always said it could be dangerous if she didn't keep a tap on it.

"Oh... that's really neat. Are there any teams that need a new seeker? I haven't practiced in forever..."

James guffawed, "You aren't going to get sorted into a house just for the seeker position are you? Doesn't matter anyways, everybody tries out brand new every year." He hadn't expected the conversation to turn this way when he saw the scrawny girl standing in the corner of his quidditch pitch in a purple dress, but he was certainly pleasantly surprised. A girl that liked quidditch was alright in his books. Now he just wanted to see what kind of game she brought to the table, then he'd really be sold. "Wanna practice? I have my old broom in the shed still and it runs pretty well since Mum got me a servicing kit for Christmas last year when I made the team."

"Sweet! Yeah totally! I left my broom at home since I didn't know how much yard space Aunt Addie would have when I moved out here."

"Ugh that's tragic! Can you still get it for the start of term?" James and Theia were practically skipping side by side towards the shed in the back of the house as they talked.

"Oh yeah! The floo is still set up for cross-Atlantic at my Aunt's so I can get anything I forgot."

"Brilliant! I'm out here practicing nearly every day, my dad helps me run drills when he can but you can come over and we can run them together! Dad says it's always good to have someone to push you during practice."

Theia's smile felt like it was rendering her face in half and she could feel the aura around her glowing in a happiness she hadn't felt in months. James was still babbling excitedly about the different speed drills he knew when a woman's voice broke them both from their reverie.

"James, are you still in your quidditch gear? I thought I asked you to clean up for the party over an hour ago!"

Euphemia Potter was a regal looking woman if Theia had ever seen one. She had long raven hair pulled back from her dark face, and a deep violet dress with an overlying chiffon scarf pulled around her arms that was edged with gold thread. Theia would guess she was a fair bit older than her parents, but her face still held features of the loveliness of her youth.

"Hello Mrs. Potter, I'm Theia Nyx. Thank you so much for having me over today." Theia jumped in to rescue James from the scrutiny of his mother's eyes. She held the borrowed broom in one hand and held the other behind her back to straighten her posture and draw the attention to herself rather than James' mucked-up attire.

"Miss Theia! It is so wonderful to have you dear. Welcome to the neighborhood! I hope you'll find it as happy a home as we do. You are as lovely as your Aunt described. My, that's a very flattering color on you, isn't it Jamie?" Euphemia pulled her in for a hug and seemed at home in showering guests with courtesies; Theia beamed to encourage the shift in her attention.

"Er... yeah. Flattering. S'it lilac or something?"

"It is! Thank you so much! I already feel so welcomed here, everyone is so nice. James was just about to show me some quidditch drills that could help me for try-outs this fall. I feel so lucky to have a classmate so close by!"

Euphemia smiled broadly at James for his credited thoughtfulness, "Adrastea and I were just saying the same thing! Feel free to stop by whenever you'd like, we have an open-door policy! Now lunch should be ready in about a half-hour, please come and join us when you're done, I'd love to hear about how you're liking the village."

"Of course Mrs. Potter, we'll be right over, I promise." Euphemia smiled at the pair as they backed and turned away towards the quidditch pitch.

"Thanks for that, Mum's a bit touchy about my appearance when guests are over. Once she starts in on a row, she's hard to stop." James ruffled his hair out of his face and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Theia waved him off and adjusted her dress as she mounted her borrowed broom. "You sure you're good to fly in that...?" James looked uncertainly at her hovering a few feet off the ground while she tied her hair into a high pony tail at the top of her head.

"Yeah, it's no problem." Theia lifted the hem of her skirt and showed a slightly reddened James the bottom of a pair of nylon shorts she had put on beneath her dress. After years of her mother chastising her about playing in dresses at day parties, Theia had developed a habit of wearing muggle spandex shorts over her undergarments so that she could be free to frolic as she pleased.

"Ha! Alright, let's just do a quick sprint and pivot drill first, yeah? Warm up the brooms a bit." James' eyes glinted with a lurking competitiveness behind his horn-rimmed glasses, and Theia smirked at the apparent challenge. "To the hoops and back... Set, GO!"

The two teens rocketed across the open field about 20 feet off the ground. They were neck and neck for the first 40 yards until Theia flattened herself against her broom and pulled ahead by half a dozen feet or so. James wore a broad smile as they hurdled through the air, she was faster than she looked, and in a dress! But he'd have her in the pivot and would be able to pull out a lead while she turned the inferior broom around the hoops. As they approached the hoops, he expected her to decelerate so she could turn the broom in a tighter arc and not lose as much headway, but she ducked lower onto the broom and shot herself through the tallest quidditch hoop instead of around it. James whooped and did the same thing with the adjacent hoop, pivoted 180 degrees in just over a second and threw all his weight into his re-acceleration towards the other end of the field. Theia's tactic was different, once through the hoop she spun the broom upwards and then sideways back towards the direction she had come, without losing any of the speed she had gained. It was a technique she had seen no-maj swimmers do when they had to turn around at one end of the pool during a race, and it was the same move that had won her the starter seeker position on her quidditch team back home.

James was focused on the finish line in front of him, but found himself straining to push any faster when Theia started to regain her lead on the final stretch. He yelled as he crossed the finish line 3 feet behind her and she pulled the broom into a vertical spiral high into the air in her victory. She was laughing delightedly as she brought the broom back down to him and he was grumbling incoherent noises at her. If that's what she could do on his old broom, he didn't want to think of the crushing punishment she would put on him with her own broom beneath her.

James Potter wasn't used to losing, but his parent's had instilled certain morals when one loses fair and square, so he stuck his hand out for her to shake as congratulations. What Theia hadn't been considering when she took his hand with a gloating smile on her face was James pulling her hand forward quickly to tip her balance over the edge of her broom. It was a prank most seasoned players used on the new ones each year to test their reflexes; James had almost lost his grip entirely when Marlene McKinnon had pulled it on him last year at his first practice. Theia let out a loud, high-pitched "Whoops!" as she turned over upside-down and clung to the broom in a full circle, finally righting herself while her loud belly laugh started to shake through her.

James ruffled his hair and then reached out to ruffle Theia's who was still shaking with her loud laughter.

"Snitch, you're seeker!" He yelled as he pushed his hand off her head and darted across the field.

The two chased and tagged each other for the remainder of the time before lunch, testing out their own skills at evading being touched. By the time they made it over to the picnic lunch the Potters had set out, Theia looked nearly as windblown as James and they had become fast friends.

* * *

Theia spent the majority of her summer at the Potter's flying with James. He showed her the speed maneuvers that he picked up at Hogwarts, and she taught him all the chaser skill drills she could remember from Ilvermony and the other teams she had played on as a kid. Hanging out with James was easy, she hadn't ever met someone who experienced the world with such purity of his emotions. When he was excited, he exuded it into his surrounding aura, and when he was frustrated she could see it pulsing around him. Even though he was a year younger, they got on great and she could tell he was a natural-born friend.

James' perception of Theia began mostly with curiosity. America seemed an entire world away and the odd slang she would use, including the stupid phrase Americans used for 'muggles,' was perplexing to him. Whenever they were flying they interacted like old friends, she often reminded him of Sirius only she was far more adept at getting them out of trouble with his parents than Sirius could ever hope to be. On days where the weather didn't permit their grueling practices, Adrastea would come over for tea with his mother and every now and then she would bring cookies that Theia had made.

As the summer wound down, James noticed Theia becoming more and more nervous about discussing the impending start of term. He tried to answer any questions she had and he told her all about the different houses and the pranks him and his friends had pulled in their first two years. Those stories usually brightened her back up, and she even made a couple of suggestions on how they could improve their pranking tactics for the upcoming year. The day that Theia and Adrastea were planning on going into Diagon Alley for her new school supplies, James convinced his Mum that it would be good of them to go that day as well so that they could give Theia a proper tour since it had been half a century since her aunt had been shopping for Hogwarts supplies.

James and Euphemia arrived at Adrastea's cottage just before 11 that morning and when Theia came bouncing down the stairs in her favorite pair of bell bottoms and a dusky red t-shirt she beamed brightly as she hip checked him in a greeting at the bottom.

"Sup, Jamsies. Ready to go?"

"Oi! I was born ready, Nyx."

Theia stepped out of a swoosh of green flames into a grody-looking pub and followed James, his mother, and her aunt into a back room and through a transfigured brick wall. The cobblestone street square that opened up in front of her caused her breath to hitch.

"Sweet..."

"No time to stop and drool ickle Nyxie, we've got a lot of ground to cover!"

"James!"

"Sorry Mum..."

James, Euphemia, and Aunt Addie pulled her from shop to shop ticking their way down her supplies list. When Theia walked by Olivander's Wand Shop she watched an old man through the window help a younger girl try out some wands. All wizarding shops tended to be inside indoor plazas in America and Theia couldn't stop smiling at the feel of the magic humming around her and the sun shining above her.

James made sure she got everything she needed, and avoid all the mistakes naïve first years made. When he talked to her about the different pets she could bring, Theia explained that she didn't really have anyone within owling distance besides Aunt Addie and she had her own owl, so she didn't need one of those. He smartly pointed her away from toads because they tended to be eaten by other students cats. Theia fawned over the kittens in the pet shop while Euphemia and Adrastea had gone to pick up sandwiches for them to eat on the way to their next stop.

"I wish they let you have puppies..."

"That would be a riot trying to get a puppy down 7 changing staircases and out onto the great lawn to potty train it." James chuckled.

"Seven changing staircases? Gods I am so screwed."

"No worries, my friends and I can keep tabs on you. You'd only get lost somewhere in the castle for a day, day and a half, tops."

Theia groaned and flopped down onto the floor, and was immediately swarmed by a dozen different kittens that were fascinated with the new person to climb all over.

"C'mon. We only have your robes left to get now. Then Mum says we can go get ice cream at Fortescue's."

"Mmm... okay let's go before I complete my transformation into a human scratching post then."

Theia stood on the tailoring stand at Madam Malkin's for what felt like a solid hour of torture. Hogwarts robes were pretty different from her Ilvermony ones, she was going to miss her favorite cranberry skirt and navy button down while she was decked out in plain grey and black all year. James assured her that her house colors would add the spark she needed to feel less dreary, especially when they were Gryffindor red and gold. Theia chewed the inside of her lip and hoped she would be placed there, she wasn't sure about having to make all new friends if she was placed in a different house. At least if she was in Gryffindor, she would know one of her classmates. The clerk at the counter gave her a weary eye when she said she didn't have a house assignment yet and would need the changeable first year colored uniform. Just as she was finished paying she heard a loud "Oi Potter!" come from behind her and James.

A flurry of black hair and loud shouting engulfed James to her left and the two boys danced around each other excitedly.

"Eh how s'it Black? Survive the summer holiday yeah? Have you been into Gambol's and Japes yet? Did you see their new stock of dung bombs? I was going to give Mum the slip later and stock up for the year. Or at least until the first Hogsmeade trip."

"Oh I know! My daydreams about Zonko's have kept me sane this holiday! I heard the old barkeep at the Three Broomsticks even sometimes serves firewhiskey if you can grow facial hair. I've been looking up beard charms all summer!"

"Brilliant mate! Oi, this is Theia! She's my new neighbor I told you about. She's from America and she's gonna try out for quidditch this year! She could have given Prewett a run for his galleons!"

Theia was blindsided by the sudden shift in attention to her and James man-handled her to stand in front of his friend. She found herself at a loss of words when a set of familiar soft grey eyes turned onto her.

"I think I remember you... You were that girl in Dumbledore's office at the end of term this spring..."

"Oh that's her?! That makes a ruddy ton of sense now, why didn't I think of that before. Yeah she's the first transfer student at Hogwarts in like 300 years."

"Sirius Black, pleased to meet you." Sirius ignored James' rambling and smirked broadly at Theia, he held his hand out for her to take.

"Theia Nyx. Pleasure. You're James' best friend? The one that thought of charming the cats in Gryffindor tower to meow 'happy birthday' at one of your professors?"

"The very same, love." Sirius shifted his weight to one leg and took on the casual lean that James had been trying to perfect all summer and basked in pride over his ingenuity. Theia smirked back at him until she caught sight of a severe woman outside the shop tutting over a small boy that looked like Sirius' miniature and was intermittently glaring at the back of Sirius' head. James followed her line of sight and recognized the pair immediately.

"Only one more week left to finalize your plans, and we can discuss them on the train in. Theia even has a couple good ideas of her own, might be worth adding her to the compartment. Owl me if you need anything mate, I think your mum might start making the paint on the door peel if she glares in here any harder." James clapped Sirius on the back and looked him in the eye for a moment. Sirius nodded and smiled back down at Theia.

"See you on the train then. I think I can manage one more week!" Sirius bowed his head at her and looked back to James with a broad smile. James and Theia left, and while James kept his eyes focused straight ahead as he exited the shop, Theia couldn't help but glance over at the small boy and the woman that must have been Mrs. Black and Sirius' brother.

"Filth he associates with! Dressed like dirty muggles and talking to him in public! I'll die of the shame! You won't disappoint me the same way, will you Regulus?"

Theia's mind reached out towards the woman and child and felt an overwhelming putrescence as she intercepted her aura. The boy's was hardly noticeable, a faint whisper of clarity in comparison. Most children had faint auras since they were still growing into the people they would be but young Regulus' seemed particularly neutral. Enough so that he may be able to use it as a defense mechanism against the truly awful woman smothering him in hatred. Theia unfurrowed her eyebrows as she walked further away from the influence of the woman's presence and tried to focus on the idea that she had just been introduced to the second friend she might have at Hogwarts if she got sorted into the correct house.

The rest of the day passed without issue, James snuck into Gambol's and Jape's and came out with his pockets full of a bunch of magical prankster trinkets. Theia tried to shake the cloud from her mind that had set in during her encounter with the Blacks. The more she thought back on Sirius, the more she remembered the brightness of his aura. The memory was like staring into the sun, which made it hard to focus on whatever was going on in front of her. James wrote off her distracted behavior to nerves about starting term in a week. He did his best to infuse Gryffindor bravery into everything he did around her so she might soak enough of it up to be sorted into his house where he could be her friend and keep an eye out for her.

* * *

"Do you have everything you need? Quill and inkpot? All your books? Your potions kit?"

"Yes yes Aunt Addie, I have everything I promise. I double-checked before bed last night and again this morning before we left."

Theia's hands were trembling despite the certainty in her tone. _This is it, Hogwarts. One train ride away from a year at a castle_.

Adrastea smoothed Theia's hair again, and gave her shoulder a light squeeze as they stood on the platform waiting for her to board the train. She kept getting sideways glances from students that either thought they recognized her as someone else or recognized her as a new, unfamiliar face. Either way, Adrastea was sure they weren't helping comfort the poor girl that was about to reinvent herself at a brand new school. She watched Theia fidget with the yew wand in her pocket. She placed both hands on Theia's arms to get the girls attention to offer her one last consoling thought before she ventured out on her own.

"I'm so proud of you my dear. You're going to do well. Write to me as often as you like. And remember, you're a Nyx. You can do this." Adrastea winked while she squeezed Theia's arms who chuckled at her little pep talk. She lifted her arms up and threw herself around the older woman.

"Thank you. For everything. If you hear about Leon's placement, you'll let me know?"

"Of course dearie. Should be any day now. Run along! Wouldn't want you missing your first train!"

Theia pulled away from the hug with a brave smile on her face. She steeled herself and boarded the train, determined to make the best of whatever came her way. As she shuffled along looking for an open compartment she tried not to let the increasing number of staring students bother her. She just looked over all of them and kept moving, one of these compartments had to have some non-intimidating students right? Just as she had come across a compartment with only one napping student in it, she heard a loud ruckus up ahead of her, and suddenly recognized her name in the midst of it.

"Theia! Hey! HEY NYX! This way! C'mere! Come sit with us yeah?"

"Promise we won't bite, love!"

"...hard."

"Ha! Moony you're the biggest ninny of us all! You couldn't bat an eye at a fly let alone bite one!"

"Ew... Sirius mate that'd be rather vile wouldn'it?"

"Oh Pete you bring us back down to earth now don't you!"

Theia approached the four boys, Sirius held a short and stocky blonde boy in a head lock while James and a sandy-haired, gawky boy laughed at their antics. The latter stood up and greeted Theia when she finally pulled her trunk into the compartment.

"Hullo, can I help you with that?" She nodded quickly at him and he lifted the trunk into the overhead storage easily for her.

"Theia, this is Remus Lupin. Moony, for short among friends." James was still openly laughing at Sirius and the other boy wrestling in their seats.

"Hi. Thanks. So you're another of James' friend? I'm his new neighbor. It's nice to meet you."

"You're the American girl he was writing to us about. Moony and I had a pool going that you were made up." The blonde boy piped up but was muffled by Sirius' torso that was currently smothering him.

"Speaking of Pete you owe me 10 sickles cause she's real. Tol'you." James looked smug and entirely at ease amongst the chaos of the compartment. Remus had his arms crossed in front of his chest but wore a broad grin as he leaned forward to mutter at Theia.

"For the record, I never said you weren't real. I only said that there was no way you tolerated James for the whole summer the way he was describing."

Theia burst out laughing at James' fake sour face he put on when he overheard Remus. Sirius and Peter untangled themselves from each other, and Peter huffed when he waved his greeting at her.

"Hi, I'm Peter. Pettigrew. And we are formally known as the Marauders. How s'it going?"

"S'good. I mean it's anarchy in here, but it's good." Theia was still laughing heartily when the a lady with a trolley came by and James and Sirius directed which British wizarding candies were the best for her to try.

The hours on the train passed quickly with this group of boys. Theia felt at home among them, she was surprised how quickly they treated her like one of their own, she figured James must have vouched for her in a letter to them or something. Once it was time to change into their uniforms, she started to feel out of place without the adornment of any house colors. She listened intently to Remus describe the best tactics to use to evade Filch the caretaker, and she stuck close by James and Sirius once it was time to disembark the train and get into the carriages that would take them to the castle.

"Such a shame you missed the boat ride. There's nothing like seeing the castle for the first time with it all lit up over the water on the Black lake."

"Moony's right, we'll have to show you what it looks like over the lake at night sometime, love. Shouldn't be hard to manage, right James?"

"Nah, cake walk mate. 'Specially not with this!"

James pulled a corner of a silvery fabric out from under his robes and wagged his eyebrows at Sirius who was smirking dangerously across from him in the carriage.

"He finally gave it to you!"

"Why on earth do you have it with you for the sorting ceremony is the question!" Remus' eyebrows shot up with recognition of the fabric James was tucking away.

"It's for emergencies. In case dearest Theia here is accidentally sorted into Slytherin, we can slip her out of the castle safely so she can run away to Norway or something."

"Sweet Salem I hope that isn't necessary." Theia shivered just thinking about having to run away somewhere so cold to escape the failure of being placed in the most hated house in the school.

"Not to worry, pet. We won't let those slimy snakes snatch you." Sirius ostentatiously winked at her and she rolled her eyes and covered her face in her hands.

Theia found that Remus was wrong. Walking up to the outside of the castle, boats and lake or not, was monumentally impressive. She stared up at all of the towers and lights that shown throughout the immense structure until she heard Peter snigger at her and push her along. The crowd shuffled into a giant room with a massively high ceiling bewitched to look like the night sky outside. Theia tried to be aware of her surroundings but she only half-heartedly followed James to the bustling tables while her eyes swiveled in every direction.

Suddenly, Theia was met with a face full of dark red hair as she stumbled into the back of a student.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" Theia backed up and tried to glance around for one of the Marauders. The girl that turned around didn't look upset, but was rubbing the back of her head and shot a curious look at her with piercing green eyes.

"S'no problem. Are you... Are you the new girl? Theia?"

 _My god that was fast... one train ride and this girl knows my name? Ugh I'm so screwed..._ "Uh... yeah. Theia Nyx. Nice to meet you. I really am sorry about your head. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. And I'm Lily! Lily Evans! McGonagall sent me a letter this summer to let me know that I would be sort of like your tour guide to start the year off! How are you?"

Lily smiled kindly at Theia and the aura around her emitted genuine friendliness.

"Oh that's great! James was telling me horror stories all summer about trick staircases and poltergeists that would lock you in abandoned classrooms and all this stuff!"

"James... Potter? Oh him? Don't listen to a word that prat says. Peeves is hardly that intimidating."

"Theia! There you are! Oh, Evans. Lovely to see you. Summer holiday treated you and the human bat well I imagine?"

Lily glared openly at James who was reaching over to grasp Theia's arm and pull her towards the seats with his friends. Despite the frustration rolling off her, Lily followed Theia and sat next to her for the sorting ceremony, who had taken the open seat next to Sirius. Lily seemed inconsolably angry until she made eye contact with Remus and the frustration melted off her while she greeted him. The two spoke quietly while Sirius whispered random facts about the professors in Theia's ear as they each entered the hall and took their seat at the long table in the front.

When a tall witch in emerald green dress robes and a pointed hat walked in carrying a tattered leather hat and a stool, the crowd grew silent. The young students that followed her in were dressed like Theia, in non-descript uniforms that would soon be assigned a house and a color to bear. They all looked nearly as nervous as Theia felt, she glanced to her left and Lily whispered to her.

"That's the sorting hat, and that's Professor McGonagall. She's the head of Gryffindor house and the Deputy Headmistress. She's a great teacher, you'll love her."

"A sorting hat...? So you wear it and it tells you which house wants to pick you?"

"Hmm... Well sort of. Except the hat just tells you which house you would be best suited for. I didn't know anything about it when I walked up, so when it started talking in my ear I thought I had gone half mad with nerves."

Theia giggled with Lily while Professor McGonagall started stating names of the students to get sorted. As each of the students were sorted, the tables around her erupted in applause and banter. When Regulus Black was called Theia could feel the anticipation and anxiety wound tightly within Sirius. She was slightly startled when her own aura reached out to try and soothe the tension radiating off of his. She noticed a nearly imperceptible relaxation of his shoulders, until the moment when the sorting hat shouted out "Slytherin!" for his brother. His back was pin straight and he was staring intently at Regulus retreating to the sea of shouting green that was welcoming their newest member. Theia's aura continued to attempt to soothe Sirius', and much to her astonishment, a few students later, it seemed to have worked.

"Dolohov, Electra!"

"...SLYTHERIN!"

"Shocking that one." Sirius looked distastefully at the Slytherin table and nudged James who was seated next to him.

"Indeed, a simply riveting turn of events my good man..." James had a dark expression as he glanced at Sirius and then back at the silver and green table across the hall. Theia looked confusedly between the two boys next to her and glanced across the table at Remus and Peter.

"After her brother, Antonin, was sorted into Slytherin and bragged up and down the halls about the 'mark' he would be receiving once he graduated, it was rather elementary that his sister would follow in his footsteps." Remus held a pointed sarcastic look but didn't elaborate any further.

"Ah... So then I take it Slytherin is a no-go?" Theia tried to keep a straight face on so she just stared blankly at Remus, waiting for one of them to rise to the bait.

"NO!" James and Sirius answered simultaneously, and James kept rolling, "Haven't I taught you anything this summer? Slytherin is home to the foulest, evilest gits on the planet!"

"I should know, my entire extended family has been sorted into Slytherin since the dawn of the _'most ancient and noble house of Black'_." Sirius looked nauseated at the use of his family's title, and looked solemnly at Theia.

Seeing Lily's darkening expression, Remus held a hand up to draw Theia's attention back. "It's not that all of them are pure unadulterated evil per say... They just have a slight tendency towards it more so than the other houses."

"So what you're saying is... that... I _shouldn't_ ask to be placed in Slytherin?" Out of the corner of her eye, Theia could see Lily bite down on the inside of both her cheeks, forming a fish-face to hold in her laughter at Theia's continued baiting of the boys.

"NO!" All three boys shouted in unison at her while Peter winced at his friends and Lily let a small guffaw past her lips before she clapped a hand over her mouth.

Theia glanced around at the entire hall whose attention had all focused on the Marauders' corner at the sound of their outburst. The steely gaze of Professor McGonagall was penetrating the group, as if she could feel out the cause of the interruption with her glare. The ever brave Gryffindor he was, Sirius spoke up first.

"Sorry Minerva! New girl was talking crazy over here!"

Her glare tightened at Sirius but she chose not to acknowledge the outburst any further; she didn't want to indulge the interruption and set a precedence for this new incoming class.

At the end of the ceremony, Professor Dumbledore began the feast with the shortest toast Theia had ever heard. Halfway through the dinner her eyes met his across the hall and he smiled slightly at her before turning back to the plump professor talking to him at his left. Once the feast was done, Theia's heart accelerated and she tried to focus on her breathing and thinking brave thoughts. As the exodus from the Great Hall began, the boys looked at Theia hopefully and wished her luck before traipsing off to their dorm. Lily hung back with Theia, talking animatedly about the new classes they would get to take this year and her friends that she would introduce her to. Once most of the students were cleared, Lily started walking Theia up to Professor Dumbledore's office, since she wouldn't know the way there other than via floo.

"Listen don't fret, all the houses are just fine, regardless of what those stupid boys say. There are friends to be made everywhere. I have some in all the houses, I am sure you will too." The kindness in Lily's eyes calmed Theia's frayed nerves as they approached a gargoyle statue.

"Licorice quills." said Lily and the gargoyle sprang to life and jumped aside as a winding staircase appeared behind it.

"I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this castle."

"Oh me neither. It still feels like an odd dream some days. I half expect to wake up to Tuney yelling at me through the door that we are going to miss the school bus if I don't wake up _RIGHT NOW_." The girls giggled as they approached the heavy wooden door that lead to Dumbledore's office. Lily was about to reach out to knock when Theia held up her hand, gesturing that she could knock for them. She rapped the door with as much confidence as she could muster and gave a quick nod to Lily. Both girls faced forward again when the door opened and there stood Professor Dumbledore gesturing the girls in.

"Miss Evans and Miss Nyx, right on time. Did you enjoy the feast? I found the treacle tart was exceptionally pleasing if I do say so myself."

"Yes sir." Both girls chimed together and glanced at each other quickly while Dumbledore swept across the room towards his desk.

"I expect Miss Evans has given you a brief explanation of the sorting process? Or perhaps Mr. Potter or Mr. Black beat her to it?" Dumbledore quirked an eyebrow at Theia as he pulled the sorting hat onto the table and gestured at the open chair for Theia to sit. She gulped, hopefully not as audibly as she thought she had, and walked forward with her shoulders pulled back.

"I explained it to her briefly at dinner, sir." Lily couldn't figure out why all of a sudden she was feeling nervous too. She figured it must just be because she liked Theia's spunk and would be excited to have a new roommate to introduce to her friends back in Gryffindor tower if she got sorted with them.

Theia sat gingerly at the edge of the chair and crossed her ankles. She eyed the dingy hat wearily, half expecting it to burst into another song like it had at the ceremony. But it remained silent until it was placed onto her head and sunk over her eyes.

 _My, my, my, what do we have here? I haven't seen one of your kind since I was newly stitched you know..._

 _Yes sir, I know._

 _You were in Thunderbird, eh? Interesting, very interesting. The house of the s-_

 _Soul. Yes, I know. It was my nature that overpowered my placement. I wanted Pukwudgie._

 _Clever girl. The heart is connected to the soul of course... Now... Where to put you here... I see much inside this head of yours..._

 _Do you see a Gryffindor?_

 _Ah... tsk tsk tsk... A lion, I see... An interesting answer to an interesting puzzle. I know just where to put you..._

"g-RAVENCLAW!"

 _Even more interesting..._

Theia blinked at the sudden light of the room as the hat was removed from her head, and she heard it's raspy voice speak again.

"Seems like the fates have aligned for you in a different way than even I could see. Either way, Ravenclaw will suit you just as well."

"Just as well?" Dumbledore's eyes were alive with curiosity as he glanced down at the hat in his hand.

"Ah yes... wasn't my first choice but it seems the choice was made for me."

"How fascinating! Very well!" Dumbledore clapped his hands and Theia's neutral uniform tie changed to a deep blue with copper accents and an eagle pin appeared on her outer robe.

"He... It- it was going to say Gryffindor." Theia mumbled as she lifted herself from the chair and walked unseeing towards Lily and the door.

"What was that Miss Nyx?" Dumbledore still had curiosity lighting up his eyes but his face was somber in reaction to Theia's apparent defeated mood.

"It wasn't the fates. It was the ether. It's always the ether..."

Theia's mind was swirling and she had to focus to keep her eyes clear of the moisture that threatened in them. Once again her nature had overpowered her character and the sheer amount of human and magical knowledge she had access to within the vast space of the ether forced the hat to place her into this house instead of into the house with her new friends. She was alone again... Aunt Addie had been so sure she would be placed into Gryffindor, but logically Theia knew she wouldn't be disappointed. Her attention refocused on the outside world when she felt Lily's small hand clasp around her own. She looked up into an apologetic smile in time to hear Dumbledore speak once more.

"Miss Evans here was chosen to be your tutor and guide through Hogwarts while you acclimated this year. She was chosen specifically for her adeptness at inter-house friendships. I am sure you will find unwavering loyalty in her friendship as long as you are able to return the favor, Miss Nyx. Miss Evans, do you know the way to Ravenclaw tower?"

"Yes sir." Lily nodded and tried to suppress the blush that was engulfing her face at the compliment that arguably the world's most famous wizard had just given her. She squeezed Theia's hand and they both said goodnight to Dumbledore and exited his office.

Theia sniffed and pulled her hand from Lily's as the girls made their way back down the spiral staircase and back into the hallway leading to the Headmaster's office. Lily was leading them back to Theia's new dormitory and she was trying her best not to be upset or disappointed about her botched placement.

"What's an ether?" Lily piped up and noticed the slight flinch Theia gave.

"Uh... It's what Seers see prophecies through. We uh... learned about it last year at Ilvermony in our Extra-magical Creatures and Beings class."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll cover that in Divination this year." Lily could sense there was more to the story that Theia wasn't sharing, because it seemed odd that a Seer would prophesize her being placed in Ravenclaw and that she would be upset when it came true.

"Er... yeah, most definitely they'll mention it in that class." Theia ran her hand through her hair and fiddled with her wand. She realized she should be paying attention to where Lily was leading her, since the redhead wouldn't be able to escort her back to her dorm every single night; she would have to learn her own way.

The conversation lightened as Lily talked about the friends she had made in her classes with the Ravenclaws and how much fun they could be in group projects, since their perspectives were always so creative. The girls found themselves in front of a door with a bronze Sphinx knocker before they realized and Theia looked tentatively between Lily and the door.

"You'll be okay to walk all the way back by yourself?"

"Course! The prefects are still roaming around for the next hour or so to make sure none of the first years are lost and wandering already."

"Listen Lily..." Theia squeezed her eyes shut, she felt bad for dodging her question earlier about the ether. It had been her own fault for mentioning it in front of her, Lily didn't deserve to be lied to, especially if they really were going to still be friends. "The ether... and my relationship to it is... complicated. I'll tell you about it sometime. But it's kind of a secret? It's not dangerous or anything, I'm not dangerous or anything... It's just... touchy. You know?"

Lily chuckled at Theia scrambling for the words to apologize for her lie earlier. She would tell her in her own time if she was a good enough friend, so she didn't take the lie to heart.

"Don't worry about it, I understand. My best friend is similar. It's okay to be private about some things. Now let's see if we can't crack this Ravenclaw riddle!"

"...riddle? Oh my god. I have to answer a question after a whole day of answering them in classes just to go to bed at night?" Theia dropped her head into her hands with an extra flare of drama and Lily chuckled openly. She reached out and grasped the knocker beneath the Sphinx and let it hit only once before it opened its eyes and acknowledged the two young girls.

"A straggler and a Gryffindor I see... are you new to this house little one?"

"Yes, uh... ma'am. I'm a transfer. From America." Theia's eyes bulged and she made brief eye contact with Lily.

"Wonderful. I'll give you a simple one tonight then... Why is a bad pin like a broken quill?"

"Uh..." Theia bit down on the inside of her lips and furrowed her eyebrows. She was always atrocious at riddles, her grandpa used to like to quiz her with them as a child and she only ever ended up solving like one out of three.

"A broken quill...?" Lily's eyebrows were pinched in concentration too, and she tapped her index finger against her bottom lip.

"A pin... pin... p-... point... Oh! Cause there's no point!" Theia exclaimed loudly, and reached out to grab Lily's wrist in her excitement of finding the answer.

"Excellent. Welcome to Ravenclaw young one." The door swung open and Theia glimpsed a serenely lit common room with sparkling blue drapes and pillars dotting the far wall. She turned to Lily who was beaming alongside her.

"Thank you so much. I-I don't know my schedule tomorrow..."

"No one does, your head of house and the prefects will hand them out tomorrow at breakfast."

"Oh okay, cool. Well maybe I'll see you in class tomorrow?"

"If not tomorrow definitely this week. And don't worry, if your roommates are stuffy you can always come sit with me at Gryffindor for dinner any time you want."

Theia exhaled her relief and smiled as she gave Lily a quick hug.

"Thanks Lily."

"Night Theia! Good luck tomorrow! Find me if you need anything!" Lily bounced down the hall towards her own dorm and Theia turned to enter her new home.

She tried her best to look like she belonged as she entered a sparsely occupied common room that was shimmering with floating lanterns and tea lights. She failed when a gasp escaped her lips and she twirled in fascination in the center of the room. Once her fascination was quelled, she made her way towards a hallway with girls meandering in and out of various rooms. There was another knocker stationed at the door she found with a small plaque on it with the names, "Harper Hidalgo. Alina Mavery. Theia Nyx. Lotte Prewett." The door was slightly ajar and she took one last deep breath to steel herself and stepped into her new room for the next year. Three sets of curious eyes met her, and in turn each of them smiled as they welcomed their new bunkmate.


	3. Chapter 3 - Hogwarts, Fall 1973

**Chapter 3**

Two weeks into term James, Sirius and Peter were conferring slyly at the Gryffindor table when Theia spotted them and walked over.

"No, that wouldn' work, would it? None of us can speak mermaid..."

James' glasses slid down his nose while he concentrated and Sirius rubbed his chin as Peter rambled through his thought process. Sirius noticed Theia's approach first and the smirk she was growing accustomed to slid easily onto his face.

"Morning, Nyx. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"Thought I'd join the cool table for lunch today, Black. What are we discussing?"

"Prank ideas." Peter mumbled, and looked slightly abashed when Sirius shot him a quick look.

"Nah she's alright, quick on her feet this one. She can help maybe." said James with a slight glint of mischief peaking out in his lopsided smile. "Every year, we open up with a prank on the Slytherins before the first month is out. Last year we charmed all the goblets at Slytherin table to make all their drinks really sour. So every time someone took a drink, whether it was pumpkin juice, water, or even milk, they would pucker their mouths and make the most ridiculous faces."

"We want to make it a true tradition, so this year has to be better!" Peter's round cheeks seemed to always be some varying shade of pink, and now they glowed with exuberance as James recounted their brilliance from the year before. Theia laughed and clapped her hands together enthusiastically.

"I love it! So what ideas do we have so far?"

"Well none really. Pete here just suggested we have the merpeople in the Black Lake hold up numbered signs to Slytherin students changing in their dorms, since they live in the dungeons beneath the lake and there's a rumor they have windows into the bottom of it in their rooms."

"Like in muggle beauty pageants. Thought it'd be a ruddy riot for Sevy to be changing into his robes and look up and see a '4' held up be a couple of merpeople..." Theia laughed again, this time more heartily and Peter tentatively joined in.

"Oh my god! That's hysterical!"

"Yeah, except we don't speak Mermish so we couldn't persuade them to do it." James said as he readjusted his glasses.

"That, and we wouldn't get to actually witness their reaction, mate." Sirius shifted into a more comfortable position and started tossing an apple into the air repeatedly.

"Ah, very true." Theia nodded and pointed at Sirius in agreement. She and the boys grew somber again while they each wracked their brains for a clever and plausible prank idea.

"We could... oh no... Nevermind." Peter seemed to be getting more uneasy as the group brainstormed in silence. Sirius and James perked up in turns and the other stared at them excitedly until they relaxed and went back to thinking again. Suddenly, a small idea flung itself into Theia's mind.

"...We could magnetize the bottom of their shoes to the floor of the castle? I'm not sure we could get the entire Slytherin House but it might end up making them walk really funny for a couple of days..."

The glint in Sirius' eyes would have been unsettling had it not looked so at home in his grey irises. All three boys leaned in eagerly for her to continue her explanation.

"We were taught a magnetizing potion last year at Ilvermony. Do you guys learn it here? I haven't looked over the whole list of potions you guys covered that Remus and Lily gave me yet."

"Moony gave you what...?"

"Oh nevermind that! We all knew he was too good for us as it was. How does the potion work?" James looked like he might slide off the edge of his seat in his excitement.

"Uh... well my professor back home said it was a customizable magnetizing potion. Good for making two ordinary substances or objects be magnetically attracted to each other. She said it was similar to Polyjuice Potion cause you add the substance you want the potion to magnetize to as the last step. It took us a week to do it in class. But we can double check the recipe... once we find it."

"Beautiful. Shall we run it by Moony lads or vote on it here and now?" Sirius' pupils had blown with untampered exhilaration. Theia felt the axis of the ether shift ever so slightly towards him, like the entire room was sloped down into him. She ignored it and let the slight verification of friends pour into her smile in return.

"I don't think we could do any better. Plus no one will have heard of it, so it might take them _ages_ to figure out that they need to clean the bottom of their shoes to get them to stop sticking to the floor! Think how brilliant that would be watching them try to climb the stairs to get to Divination or Astronomy!" James bounced in his seat and looked each of his friends in the eye as he spoke.

"All in favor then?"

The boys said 'aye' simultaneously.

"Reckon Moony'd know which book in the library might be the best bet for finding the recipe?"

"Moony would know what book for what recipe?"

Remus strolled up silently and took the group by surprise, he took a seat next to Peter and waved a hello at Theia while he grabbed the apple Sirius was still tossing into the air and took a bite out of it.

"Our dearest Theia here has had an epiphany in the form of our opening prank this year. We are going to brew a potion to magnetize the Slytherins' shoes to the floor."

The corner of Remus' mouth quirked up around the large bite of apple he was chewing. He nodded as he swallowed.

"So they'll have to shuffle around the castle then? Can you brew that if we get you the ingredients?" He looked at Theia and she smiled boldly.

"Potions is one of my best classes, I should be able to manage it. We don't have the recipe though. That's what we need your book expertise for."

"I'll check the library before dinner."

"Sirius, you and I can, uh, gather the ingredients once they get the recipe." James winked at Sirius and made a gesture as if putting the hood on a jacket up over his head.

"I'll think of a distraction so we can get the potion onto their shoes then!" squeaked Peter. Theia looked around at the boys who seemed to each be taking their roles incredibly seriously and started to chuckle. _This year is going to be too much fun._

* * *

Theia had been brewing the potion in an empty girls lavatory that her roommate Harper had shown her during their first week. Harper was prone to panic attacks and she had shown Theia this bathroom because she used it when she needed to escape during the day if her anxiety got the better of her. There was a ghost of a young girl that occupied one of the toilets, but once you greeted her she more or less left you be. Theia had decided Harper was her favorite of her three roommates; she had immediately accepted her into her circle and was already friends with Lily. It was also exceptionally amusing to Theia that Harper was a metamorphagus and when the three girls would sit together after class in the library or on the lawn, her two friends' hair colors were complimentary, since Harper favored a bright sky blue for her wild curly hair. Theia had laughed when she pointed out that she had the two most colorful friends at school, after which Harper turned her hair and eyes a flat dark grey color for the rest of the day just to spite her.

The potion had just over 20 hours left to simmer before they had to sprinkle in the tablespoon of ground up stone from the castle floors, and Theia's mind was occupied with a different distraction for the time being. Quidditch try-outs were being held that afternoon after classes got out and she couldn't shake the nerves. After she dropped off her books in her dorm and left Harper to nap before dinner, she decided she needed to find James to talk strategy one last time.

She was wandering one of the corridors that circled a courtyard when a yell caught her attention.

"Hey! New girl!"

"American bird! Over here!"

Theia snapped her head to the right and saw 3 boys sitting together: one sprawled on a bench, the other on the ground, and the last perched up against a tree in the yard. When her eyes met theirs, two of them strode toward her and the one who had been seated against the tree followed reluctantly. She made note of the green and silver ties around their necks and pushed the memories of the Marauder's warnings out of her mind. As the boys approached she guessed they were about her age or just below, though they were a fair amount bigger than she was. She straightened her posture and tried to keep her face neutral.

"You're the new girl, yeah?" The boy who had been lying on the bench had cropped ashy brown hair, pinched light brown eyes, a few red spots spattered across his chin and cheeks, and his teeth were crossed every which way.

"Yeah. I'm Theia. Nice to meet you... What's yo-"

"Surname?"

"W-what?" Theia blinked quickly at the gruff response. The other boy standing next to the one who had spoken had dirty blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of his neck and eyebrows that were almost invisible on his face they were so pale. He had crossed his arms when his friend had cut off Theia's question and she realized the both of them were staring at her with a business-like expression on their faces. The third that was tucked behind the first two looked apathetic but was watching the interaction nonetheless. He had black hair that looked a little greasy at the roots and heavily lidded, dark eyes with a hooked nose. Recognition hit Theia that this was Lily's best friend she had introduced her to a couple weeks back, without Lily's brightness by his side however, Severus looked very different. _Darker, even._

"M'name's Mulciber. This is Rosier, and Snape." said the big brown-haired boy. He gestured at his two friends and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "What's your surname?"

Theia felt her face scowl slightly, the auras pouring off this group of boys were dark and dim with a touch of malice and curiosity tainting the edges. Her voice was tight when she spoke.

"Nyx."

"Half-blood or pureblood then?" The blonde named Rosier spoke up this time. There was a threat that lingered beneath the surface in both Rosier and Mulciber while Severus remained seemingly indifferent, though Theia could sense small traces of unease in him. She could feel the anger flush through her neck and she narrowed her eyes at the boys.

"I resent that question."

Rosier and Mulciber found that amusing, and whacked each other with their elbows and chanted "ooooh" back and forth.

"Touched a sore spot have we?"

"Don't know whether that's a good sign or bad?"

Theia rolled her eyes and turned to stalk off before they could continue their poor excuse for banter.

"Oi! We aren't done with you!" A clammy hand gripped Theia's wrist and held on tightly. Her back stiffened and she glared daggers at Mulciber's hand as she turned back around to face them. She didn't lift her eyes from his hand on her wrist while she tried to clamp down her temper she could feel boiling up inside her.

"Do not touch me." Theia lifted her glare to pierce into his bulky face and his smug expression only incited her anger further.

"You haven't answered our question yet. Wouldn't want to be rude would you?"

Theia's mind was racing with all of the things _she would like to be_ until she watched the boys shrink slightly in front of her. Her mind reached out behind her to find what had elicited their change in reaction and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She felt an inaudible snarl rendering through the ether, and something approaching, _prowling_ behind her. She pressed further and a vision of golden amber eyes and bared teeth swam in front of her. _A wolf... in Hogwarts?!_

She shook the absurdity out of her mind when she realized these boys wouldn't just be standing here if there really was a wolf. She finally recognized a warmth, and a distinct sense of reservation that was mixed in with the wolf. She tried to place where she knew it from when her curiosity got the best of her and she turned around. _Remus!_

Remus was standing just behind Theia, and was glowering at Mulciber with an unmatched intensity. He reached forward and surprised Theia with the gentleness of his touch and removed her arm from Mulciber's grasp.

"Gentlemen."

Without breaking his stare, Remus nodded at the group, placed a hand on Theia's back and guided her away from the gang. Her mind was still reeling with the duality of Remus' aura. The one she had felt on the train was still there, warm, kind, understanding, and cautious, the traces of insecurity that usually intermingled with him were lessened by his anger it seemed. And perhaps by the second half of his aura. It was distinctly separate from his own. Theia was touching the edges, trying to understand how she had missed it and how the two halves were related to each other. It was most certainly a wolf, Theia could see it clearly now. Had it been standing in front of them it would be pacing on a spot in frustration with a low, rumbling growl emanating from its throat.

Remus' own hands were clenched at his side as he walked her down the hallway towards Gryffindor tower. It was amazing, she could feel his two tempers inside him. His human one ebbing away as the threat from the group dissipated behind them, and his wolf one still riled from the confrontation with the rivals.

"You alright?" Remus's voice broke her from her revelations.

"Uhh... yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I was coming to see James to talk about tonight and they intercepted me. They were just being obnoxious." Theia blinked and ran a hand through her hair, "Thanks."

He smiled kindly down at her, while he guided her up the stairs to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room.

"No problem... Stay away from that lot if you can. Severus with Lily is usually harmless, but as you can see, he didn't step in to help you either."

"I had it under control..." Theia ruffled a little at the notion of her not being able to take care of herself. She was a moderately competent witch. But a small voice inside her head was nagging that Remus was right. _Their auras weren't all bunnies and sunshine... One versus three isn't the best odds, especially without the use of your wand hand._

Remus chuckled and nodded. "I don't doubt it. Just if you're gonna start a brawl, invite a couple of us to join in the fun next time, yeah?"

She rolled her eyes and chuckled along with him. He muttered the password at the portrait of the Fat Lady and gestured for Theia to climb into the common room first.

When he made it through the portrait hole behind her, he gestured toward the staircase on the left.

"He's in the dorm. Probably still pressing his try-out robes."

They both laughed at the mental picture of a frantic, half-mad James primping each individual stitch in his lucky Gryffindor jersey while he babbled on and on about various tactics and strategies he would bring to the Gryffindor team _if_ he made it.

It turned out they weren't terribly far off from reality when Remus pushed open the dorm door and Theia strolled up to the doorway behind him. James was sitting on his bed with his uniform laid out pristinely in front of him. He had his glasses perched on the top of his head and his usually unruly hair was a mangled mess that framed his face. His dark complexion was flushed and his hands were fidgeting with pages of notes of plays they had practiced over summer break. Theia smiled and darted across the room.

"Hi! Hello! Hi!" She threw a wave at Sirius and Peter who were playing cards on the floor, and stopped softly at one of the four-posters of James' bed. "What time's your try-out?"

"Six! Frank likes to do them at dinner time because he says it weeds out the 'uncommitted' players." James was patting the red quilt covering his bed around him, searching for something. He patted up his legs and chest until his hands found his glasses at the top of his head.

"Mine's at 5! Help! Tell me again what the name was of that dive you showed me?"

"Montesque dip." James rearranged his jersey to lay gently in his lap to make room for Theia to sit down on the end of his bed. "Don't forget, you have to fake right before twisting left into the dive!"

"Okay, okay. You remember the strategy of looking at a different hoop than the one you're truly aiming at?"

"Yes! I've been practicing!" James balled up a piece of parchment with scribbles on it that laid on his bedside table and stared at Theia as he tossed it across the room to land in Sirius' lap.

"Ten points." Sirius murmured as he slapped his hand down in front of Peter and crossed his arms in front of his chest victoriously. Peter groaned and threw his own cards down, and reached forward to shuffle a new game.

"You going to eat before your try-outs, Nyx?" Sirius said louder this time, and looked up at the frazzled pair on the bed.

"I'll grab a snack on my way back to Ravenclaw to change. I don't want to weigh myself down."

"That'a girl." James nodded smartly. Both him and Theia had each had their share of nausea and near-incidents over the summer when they had indulged in a big meal before a rigorous practice session.

"Are you guys going to watch James try-out?"

"Course. And yours." Remus grinned at the apparent relief that washed over Theia.

"You can do that? They're not closed try-outs?"

"Nah."

"Closed is a relative term anyways." Peter said so casually it almost went unnoticed. Theia scoffed and let out a deep breath of air in a whoosh.

"It's 4:20, I better get going. I'll see you after your try-outs Jamesie! See you boys!" Theia sprang from her spot, and scurried out the door.

* * *

"THAT'S IT NYX!" Sirius shouted vigorously into the air towards the rocketing blur of blue robes and brown hair that was coming to be one of his favorite people.

"MERLIN'S LEFT SHOE SHE'S FAST!" Peter yelled and sent an uncharacteristic wink and a nudge at Remus. He laughed heartily and yelled with the other two boys as Theia dove and turned along the designated path set for the would-be seekers. She reached forward and tagged the ball of light at each checkpoint before her partner did each time. Although she couldn't hear the bellowing below her, Sirius could picture the grin growing on her face as she kept up her lead.

The boys were disguised as Ravenclaw students, Sirius had borrowed an old pair of James' glasses and tied his hair back to really _sell_ his disguise. Remus had thrown on a blue beanie and transfigured all of their scarves to the right colors. Peter hardly bothered to play up his costume, he had a knack for being overlooked anyways. Sirius had spotted the blue-haired girl that Theia and Lily were always hanging out with on the other end of the bleachers, and would have waved and possibly winked at her had it not been for Remus' fast reflexes that turned him towards their current spots before he had been able to catch her eye.

Regardless of the effort they had laid into their appearances, they were still earning side-long glances from a few spectators near them. That was likely due to their obvious and outspoken favor of Theia while she darted around the field. They attempted to ignore it, they knew that if they acknowledged being out of place, someone would recognize them and their jig would be up.

Theia was lined up at one end of the pitch with the other four seekers trying out. Peter's eyes were darting back and forth between Theia and the opposite end of the field that would be the finish line, weighing her odds of finishing first or second, since most teams had a back-up seeker, and that was all fine and well too. Remus was discussing the logistics of how Theia was the most likely to win based on the size difference between her and her opponents, murmuring about air drag and wind speed. Sirius was fixated directly on Theia, who was hovering in the middle of the pack of racers. Her hair had been pulled into a ponytail on top of her head and her navy and cranberry uniform stood out amongst the other players. The wind swept around her up on her broom, and Sirius thought she looked at home perched high above the ground.

The Ravenclaw captain that Sirius recognized as a moderately attractive sixth year boy was on the opposite end of the field, he cast a magical finish line and his voice boomed across the pitch.

"ON MY MARK! 3, 2, 1, MARK!"

Sirius glimpsed the look of determination on Theia's face before she sped forward down the pitch. The group started off the line together but after only 10 or so meters, the quicker ones started to pull ahead. Halfway down the pitch, Theia and the boy who had been Ravenclaw's seeker last year were neck and neck and well ahead of the pack. Sirius could see her press herself flatter to the broomstick and lean forward harder, and from his perspective, it looked like she was edging just ever so slightly in front of the other boy. When they crossed the finish line, the color changed from white to gold to silver as the two competitors crossed, but it would have been nearly impossible to tell who had been first from their obtuse line of sight.

The captain had called over Theia and last year's seeker, and Sirius could just make out a bright smile Theia was struggling to wrangle off her face. Her cheeks were flushed, her dark brown hair was nearly wild as James', and Sirius let out a loud, barking laugh while Remus and Peter 'woofed' their approval at their friend's finish.

The boys departed shortly after that, they knew James would need one last pep-talk before the Ravenclaw team cleared the field for Gryffindor, and the seeker races had been the last portion of the try-out.

At the dinner later that night Theia sat with the Marauders and her and James helped themselves to three servings of nearly everything while they animatedly recounted every moment of their respective try-outs. Sirius chuckled along with their infectious enthusiasm and the three boys reassured them both they were destined for quidditch greatness.

The following morning, the teams were posted on the wall just outside the Great Hall, with multi-hued coagulations of students surrounding each list.

Theia pushed herself forward until her eyes were level with the bottom of the parchment.

 _Ravenclaw 1973 Team_

Her eyes skidded down the list until she hit the section she wanted. Her heart hammered in her chest, and her stomach twisted into knots.

 _Seeker:_

 _Starter- Rowan Donohoe_

 _Secondary- Theia Nyx_

"Yes!" She did a small fist pump and wiggled her way back out of the crowd, searching for a mess of black hair on top of cinnamon skin.

"Nyx! Did you make it?" She turned towards the shout and bellowed back at the approaching Marauders.

"I did! Secondary seeker!" She brought her hands over her head, and bounced towards them, radiating her relief and excitement.

James shook her shoulders vigorously and laughed along with her loudly. She was swooped off her feet and swung in a circle in a jubilant celebration by an over-excited Sirius. Once she was returned to the ground James tousled her hair and swung his arms over his two dark-haired friends' shoulders.

"How about you?" She turned up to James.

"Starting Chaser Number 2 for Gryffindor, at your service." James dropped into a dramatic bow, throwing his hand out in exaggerated, gallant circles in front of him. He had a cocky smile on his face and Theia could feel the glow of happiness pulsating off of his aura.

The boys shuffled into spots on the Gryffindor bench and Theia followed; it was Saturday so Harper wouldn't be up for another hour or so and she still didn't quite feel at home at the Ravenclaw table by herself yet. James and Remus set straight to work piling eggs onto their plates, the former favoring scrambled and the latter favoring over easy. Theia hadn't given much thought to Remus' dual aura since her discovery of it the day before, and she let her mind probe it once more while he was distracted.

The wolf seemed more prominent today than it had yesterday despite the far calmer mood. The aura of the teenage boy Remus was exuding vicarious excitement and was happily anticipating the food in front of him. The wolf Remus was ravenous, and was focused intently on every morsel within reach making it onto his plate. What stunned Theia was Remus' ability to ignore the wolf's pull; his outward demeanor remained happy while the wolf within him whined with anticipation. As her mind encircled the wolf- she wanted to understand how he was tied to Remus and how they coexisted within him- the wolf noticed her attention. The double vision of the piercing golden eyes of the wolf staring up intensely at her through the ether and Remus' amber ones glancing quickly to her across the table made her instantly aware that she had been staring at him for a fair amount of time. Her face was still plastered with the shining smile she had worn since reading her name on the roster, and she pushed more kindness and warmth out through it towards Remus, to both play off her prolonged staring and to reassure the insecurities she could feel bubbling up to the surface within him. He quirked up a half smile at her and proceeded to ravage the food on his plate.

 _A werewolf... that's the only thing that makes sense. Gods that sucks..._

Theia put the task of looking up the lunar calendar to the back of her mind for later as she reached to gather her own breakfast from the platters around her; a handful of bacon, a cinnamon-sugar muffin, and a bowl of yogurt. Sirius had opted for something similar, bacon, a couple of vanilla bean scones, and an egg on toast. Peter had arranged a ring of biscuits around a bowl of cinnamon porridge since he said he couldn't stomach eggs the way the rest of the boys did.

"Gryffindor's first match is in four weeks against Hufflepuff, and we don't play Ravenclaw until after Halloween. Nyx, you reckon you'll be switching on and off as seeker? Think you'll get to fly in our match?" James gulped down a fist-sized bite of his scrambled eggs as he eagerly steered the conversation to his favorite go-to topic.

"Dunno yet. I suppose in the meantime of finding that out, we could focus our efforts on the final execution of the _'beaker leaker'_ plan..." Theia snickered and wiggled her eyebrows at the boys around her.

"Guh, I still hate that name." Peter scrunched his nose up in disdain, it had been his idea to coin a codename for their prank and that had been his first suggestion which had stuck when everyone couldn't breathe long enough to suggest a different one due to incoherent laughing.

"When's the potion done?" Sirius was smirking and dusting his fingers off on a napkin as he leaned in towards the little witch beside him.

"Today. Remus and I are adding the last bit of stone to finish it off around noon. Then we can bottle it and it'll be all set to go."

The ether around Theia was thrumming, whether from the combined excitement from the five young teens or Theia's own magic reacting enthusiastically to the prospect of a completed potion, she couldn't be sure. While the boys nailed down the logistics for the final act of the prank, Theia reached her mind out into the ether and enveloped each of the four Marauders' auras in warmth and light. Remus sat up straighter and she could see his smile broaden while the wolf within lied down and rested his head on his front paws staring intently at her. James' cocky smile was as blinding and lopsided as ever, he reached out to clap her soundly on the shoulders while he talked animatedly. Peter, the shyest of the group, broadened his shoulders and his cheeks were flushed bright pink around his toothy grin. Sirius' aura was already bright and when Theia poured a bit of her own into his it emboldened the magic around him and he threw off warmth of his own in return. Her eyes widened as she gazed sideways at him, she was overcome with the sensation of staring into the sun, and she had to glance away before he noticed the slight change in her expression while he smiled at her.

As midday rolled around, Remus joined her outside of Ravenclaw tower so they could finish off the potion together. Harper tagged along and helped Theia discreetly carry the bottles they would store the potion in. She had checked the lunar calendar when she had gotten back to her dorm after breakfast and discovered that the full moon was less than a week away. Which would explain Remus' wolf's growing presence and why she didn't pick up on it immediately when she met him, since the start of term coincided with the new moon. She had decided not to bring up her knowledge of his condition to him directly, opting instead to let him tell her if he ever felt comfortable sharing such a secret. She knew what it felt like to be innately different than everyone around you, but her abilities weren't acquired in the same violent way Remus had inherited his. She had already made up her mind that she liked him before discovering his inner wolf, so she made a silent vow to herself to continue on that path as she would with the rest of her new friends.

"Don't you love the feeling of a completed potion?" Harper pulled Theia from her deep thoughts. She had been mindlessly stirring in the ground stone Remus had collected for her. The dark slate potion was bubbling happily, and Theia placed her hand over it, palm spread open just above it and allowed the potion's steam to saturate her hand. She could sort of taste the potion through the ether and gauge how the ingredients had been mixed, and what the effect would be. _...Yup. Perfect._

A sly smile cracked across her face as the ether confirmed that she had brewed the potion with the same perfection she had last year at Ilvermony for Professor Dixon.

"Let's hope the Slytherins haven't neglected their fitness over summer break... I believe more than a few of them will find it rather difficult to get their feet more than a couple inches off the ground without some serious leg power."

Remus chuckled darkly with her and Harper, and the three students set to bottling the potion.

"Shall we test it out?" Remus was peering into the cauldron that had the leftover potion that wouldn't fit into their flasks.

"I think that's a brilliant idea Mr. Lupin." said a deviously grinning Theia. Harper reached into her pocket and pulled out a wizarding chess piece; she almost always had at least one random trinket on her person. Remus sat between the two girls and took the piece from Harper before handing it off to Theia, allowing her to do the honors. Theia cleared her throat, threw her long hair over her shoulder, and solemnly dipped the very bottom of the chess piece in the potion. She pulled the chess piece out of the cauldron and blew on it lightly to speed along it's drying. After a few minutes of gently waving the piece in her hand, the potion had dried to be nearly translucent and Theia flipped it over to set onto the ground. Her hand paused to hover with the piece just an inch off the floor and she could feel a strong pull from it as it tried to complete its journey.

She released the piece and it flew to the ground with a sharp crack. Harper jumped slightly at the sound and Remus's eyebrows climbed with fascination. He went to lift the piece from the ground and his lips pursed when it took more effort than he had anticipated. Theia could see that he was gripping the piece tightly, but even with a fair amount of effort, he struggled to lift the marble trinket more than a couple inches into the air.

"Bloody hell... The guys are going to die when they see this..." His smile had a vindictive note to it and Theia made eye contact with Harper as they tried biting down the smirks that dawned on their faces.

"It'll get stronger the more the potion is in contact with the magnetized substance, and the longer it dries onto whatever it touches." Theia read from the American potions manual they had checked out of the library when they started the brew last week.

"How do you remove it?" Harper was eyeing the piece with wonder adorning her features, the ends of her hair darkened a few shades into a deep cerulean as her concentration focused on the single task of pulling the chess piece off the floor.

"Uhh..." Theia's index finger slid down the page as she scanned for the section on how to deactivate the potion, "Oh! Oil. It needs to be saturated and rubbed with a light-colored oil for at least 5 to 10 minutes depending on how thick the layer of potion was when it dried."

Theia smiled triumphantly at her pair of mismatched friends, taking note that the color of Harper's hair played well against Remus' chestnut locks and even brightened his complexion in such close proximity.

"So when are you launching it amongst the Slytherin ranks?" Harper fiddled with the stopper of the nearest potion bottle and Theia had to reach over to take it from her hand when she looked dangerously close to tipping it over and shattering it with her mindless musings.

"Monday." Theia lined the bottles up and then divvied them up between herself and Remus for them to take back to the Gryffindor common room. Harper took the cauldron and cast a quick cleaning charm into it and tucked it beneath her arm as she stood from the floor. Remus and Theia gathered their respective bottles and joined her. Once the potions were tucked away into the back pockets of her jeans and her jumper was pulled down to conceal them against her form, Theia looped her arms into both her friends' elbows and they exited the bathroom.

Monday came quickly, and the butterflies threatening in Theia's stomach were bordering on preposterous. It was just a prank after all, and a harmless one at that. Once it dried to the floor, it would be entirely benign and invisible. It was just whatever it touched in the meantime between spilling and drying that would be maddeningly magnetized.

Peter waltzed up to Theia in a corridor adjacent to the Great Hall, and she had to double check over his shoulder if he was hiding the other Marauders. She could feel their presence but they were no where in sight, which baffled her. She felt slightly panicky that maybe her hold on the ether was slipping, or was being interfered with, which would obviously _not_ be good...

"Mornin' sunshine. How's it looking today?" Peter was walking lightly and had a sly grin. She narrowed her eyes at him and one of her hands reached up to twirl the ends of a dark curl.

"Where's everyone Peter? S'it just you?" Her heart was speeding up, she could feel three more familiar presences in the hallway. But the way behind her was clear, and Peter stood appearing to all the world as being alone.

"They'll be along." He said as he examined the dirt beneath his finger nails and attempted to chew them clean.

As if stepping from out beneath a vail Sirius appeared at Theia's side and flung an arm around her shoulders as she jolted in surprise.

"Missing me this early in the morning, Nyx?" He purred rather loudly into her ear.

"Nah mate, girl's got better taste than that, haven't you?" Remus followed suit and seemed to appear from beneath an invisible curtain as he entered the conversation.

"And besides, everyone knows I'm her favorite!" James' head appeared before the rest of his body and realization dawned on Theia only a fraction of a second before he untied the invisibility cloak from around his neck and it fell away from his body, turning an iridescent silver as it did so.

Sirius' grip tightened on Theia's shoulders as a small pout formed on his lips. His grey eyes were scowling vaguely towards his best friend but his arms were pulling Theia in to tuck into his side. Her heart was still pounding from the ambush and the hand that had been playing nervously with her hair had flown to rest on her chest. Sirius must have noticed that she was easily startled and tried to settle her down without drawing any attention to his efforts, and Theia questioned if they were even conscious decisions he was making.

"So everyone knows the plan, yeah?" Peter rubbed his wrists and hands as his watery blue eyes flitted from person to person.

"Yes." The remaining four teens responded in unison.

"Alright, one last time then. Remus and I have the potion in goblets and will be walking _casually_ in front of the hall that exits from the dungeons. James, you have the charmed snitch in your pocket, and are going to toss it towards us so that it flies down that hallway and you can barrel us over, effectively spilling the potion everywhere."

"Be careful not to get any of it on you or your feet or clothes." Theia interjected from her spot leaned in against Sirius' side. She stepped forward when she spoke, and the rush of cold following Sirius' absence immediately washed over her. She drew back slightly but didn't tuck herself back into his side.

"Yeah, course not! We got it. We will strategically stumble with the potions, making sure it hits nothing but the floor. We'll then grab the goblets and make a quick escape, with James just behind us. Theia, you and Sirius will be the crowd-drawing distraction. Have you two settled on an approach yet?"

"We're improvising." Sirius smirked proudly and winked at Theia, who winked back.

"Got it... just make sure it's a proper scene. We need those green snakes to flock through the hall before it completely dries."

"With that much potion on the ground, it might take a solid 10 to 15 minutes."

"All the merrier then." James was smiling boldly and his glasses had slid down the bridge of his nose when he reached into his pocket to retrieve the snitch Remus had charmed.

"Alright, meet at Gryffindor table once it's done."

"Except for me. I'll see you guys on the way to class. Meet me outside the doors." Theia piped up quickly.

"M'kay. Good luck mates." Remus nodded at Theia and tapped Peter on the side of his arm before the two of them walked down the rest of the hall towards the main entrance. Once they got there, Remus quickly transfigured the bottles the potions were in into large goblets. Peter carried two of them, and he managed three with his much larger hands.

James, Sirius, and Theia watched them exit the hallway and step into the broad expansive room just beyond it. The three of them made their way behind them after a minute of waiting and James separated from the two of them as the hall opened to their final destination. He shot a quick wink at Sirius before slipping off to the side to wait for a proper moment to knock the potions from Remus' and Peter's hands.

Theia glided away from Sirius' side when she spotted Harper and decided she would be the perfect cover for the beginning of their scene. They had only decided on what they were going to do yesterday, and hadn't practiced at all so Theia needed to feel as if she was running into him naturally in order for the improvisation to look believable.

Once she had taken her place besides Harper and begun chatting with the grumbling, sleepy witch she waited for Sirius to make his first move from across the hall.

"AY NYX!" Sirius' voice boomed across the open room, and immediately drew everyone's attention.

"Yes, Black?" Theia shouted back.

"Do you dance?" His expression was tying Theia's stomach in knots, his grin was far more deviously handsome than any 13 year old boy had any right to be. She quirked her sideways smirk back at him and feigned nonchalance.

"Of course. But I prefer flying." She was still shouting across the hall at him but it wasn't out of the ordinary for Sirius to make a scene so she simply joined in and hoped it looked natural. Somehow, Sirius smirked broader and stared directly at Theia, making it feel like they were the only two souls in the entire castle.

"Let's have it then!" He stepped out to broaden his stance slightly, and hit his thighs loudly with his hands while a simultaneous crash echoed off to the side. Sirius watched Theia hand off her book bag to Harper who was standing bleary-eyed next to her, adjust her skirt quickly, and sprint forward at him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he took note that a specific part of him fancied the way she wore her uniform socks a size too big for her which made them ride up over knees and flirt with her thighs. But the brunt of his focus was on her quickly approaching form and he recognized a look of pure determination mingled with exhilaration that he often saw reflected in his best friend's hazel eyes, however there was something else lurking within her dark eyes that he couldn't put a name to. Just before he caught her, a small voice chimed in his head, _Trust._

He placed his hands firmly on her torso and lifted her up in one fluid motion high above his head. She arched her back and lifted her arms out to the side as she mimicked flying and tried drawing as much attention as she could to her new perch above the crowd.

She had on a huge smile and Sirius spun her around in a small circle to properly display their distraction. She felt like she hardly weighed anything at all, and he was only reminded to put her back down when she looked down and lowered her legs to be parallel to him. He played up their dismount by lowering her slowly to the ground against him, in a way he knew would emphasize the muscles in his arms that were visible beneath his rolled up sleeves. She must have picked up on what he was trying to do, and wrapped her hands around the back of his neck and levered herself down with her arms resting on his shoulders.

They looked like one of those couples on the cover of a romance novel that James' mum liked to read, which was exactly their goal and they drew the crowd they wanted. Girls from every house that had come down for breakfast were gawking at the pair of them. More than a few of them looked jealous and wistful, as if they wished they could trade places with the new American girl. Theia's cheeks were flushed as she smiled up at him once her feet were planted firmly and she let an infectious laugh roll off her lips. He watched her glance away from him and scan the crowd for the bravest looking girl and he remembered their display had a secondary part to it.

Theia tried to hone in on a specific gasp of jealousy to bring her to the boldest girl that might attempt to follow her own act and unknowingly play into their distraction.

"Well that's certainly a way to wake a girl up in the morning!" She proclaimed loudly and zeroed in on a Gryffindor girl that was still standing with her jaw hanging open. "Mary! You have to try! Come on now, he won't drop you, will you Sirius?"

"Wouldn't dream of it love. Have at it." He winked ostentatiously at the small blonde girl he vaguely recognized and opened his arms to her. Theia had moved to stand next to her and placed an encouraging hand on her shoulder. She pulsed excitement out into the ether around her and tasted the relative attentiveness the crowd had on Sirius.

"Get a good running start!" Theia exclaimed and the girl bit her lip nervously but flung herself forward just the same. Once Sirius successfully caught her and lifted her as high as he had Theia, girls from every house were shoving forward to see and to try to catch Theia's attention so they could join in. Theia was walking around and tagging girls to go next but her mind was reached out towards Sirius to make sure he wasn't tiring out. She tried her best to send him strength and prop him up through the ether while she flitted around between the bravest girls in the hall but she wasn't overly confident in her ability to manipulate the ether to such a degree.

They had effectively drawn a crowd and the three other Marauders were watching the scene unfold from the top of the staircase that led to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers. They watched a group of a dozen or so girls from Slytherin walk briskly up the hall and straight through their spilled potion as they attempted to get closer to the center of the crowd. They were quickly followed by 15 or so boys that looked much older and had dark expressions on their faces when they saw the 'disgraced heir' making a scene with witches from all of the houses in the grand entrance. Overall, Peter claimed he had seen 40 Slytherins traipse through the potion without so much as a downward glance.

"Prolly can't look down what with their noses stuck so high in the air." James had a mischievous grin he was poorly concealing on his face, and he waved quickly at a passing Lily. She glanced at him suspiciously but felt her hand react to wave back of its own accord.

She chuckled when she saw Theia bouncing around the Entrance Hall pushing girls forward to jump into Sirius' arms like in muggle ballets.

Theia had been so entirely distracted by keeping tabs on Sirius' enduring strength and rechecking his balance as he lifted each new candidate that she didn't notice the stern aura approaching their little scene. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye at the top of the staircase and glanced up to see James waving his hands wildly over his head trying to get her attention. Remus and Peter were trying to subtly point at something off to her right and as she was about to turn her head towards whatever they meant her to notice, McGonagall spoke sharply.

"Mr. Black is there a reason you're manhandling your classmates this morning?"

Theia felt her face blanch and her eyes flew to Sirius who was still in the middle of a laugh as he brought the small second year Hufflepuff to the floor. His smile stayed planted on his face and he didn't glance or acknowledge Theia's existence as he responded to his Head of House.

"None at all Professor. Simply engaging some physical activity to get the blood moving before classes. I hear it improves memory and attention." The smile he shot McGonagall should have been criminal. She arched a singular black eyebrow in response. Theia crossed her fingers behind her back and tried to mellow her frantic mind. _No harm no foul?_

"Very well. I'm sure it's left you quite famished. I suggest you continue on to breakfast." McGonagall leveled a challenging stare at Sirius and as bold as ever, he smiled and gave her a small bow before sauntering into the Great Hall.

Theia exhaled sharply and scurried into the Hall with the rest of the dissipating crowd.

Breakfast beside Harper and her other roommates was a blur. She was focused intently on the Slytherin table that was adjacent to her own, the floor of the Great Hall was marble and not the same dark stone tile that stretched through the majority of the castle. So the Slytherins that had tracked through their spilt potion were able to eat amiably as they normally would while the potion dried on their shoes.

Her first class that morning was Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and she rose slowly as the Hall began to empty. Her eyes searched for the boys and she found Remus first; he nonchalantly nodded her towards the door without making direct eye contact. She wrapped her hand around the crook of Harper's elbow and lead her friend towards the large double doors. Harper had changed her hair to soft sea foam green that morning in anticipation of one of her favorite classes and had perked up considerably after her morning cup of tea. Theia dropped her hand as the girls went through the doors and walked vaguely towards the exit to the grounds, going slowly so she could be intercepted by the boys when they found her. Harper, as always, was a fantastic beacon and the boys zeroed in on the two smallish girls after only a couple steps.

"What do you have this morning Nyxie?" Sirius had sauntered up besides the two girls without detection and his eyes were scanning the growing mass of students dispersing to their various classes.

"We need an inconspicuous vantage point..." James' head was on a swivel while he probed for a good place to loiter before him and Sirius had to trek up to Divination and Peter and Remus went down to Care of Magical Creatures.

"To watch the chaos unfold." Peter had a smirk pushing into his plump cheeks.

Theia weaved through the clamor of students and stopped short in front of a ledge to the side of the doors that lead to the grounds, the view when she turned around showed the entire hall and the stairs that lead up into the castle clearly. Her and Harper stepped up onto the ledge so they could see more clearly and Peter joined them.

Their eyes soon landed on a small blonde Slytherin girl who seemed to be struggling to keep up with the crowd as she attempted to make her way across the entrance hall. She had her chin held up high, but her feet were dragging and they could see she was straining more and more with each step. A scowl was growing on her face when Peter nudged Theia and pointed towards a group of Slytherin boys that were awkwardly approaching the staircase. They seemed to have already been walking slowly and when the first pinched-looking boy reached the steps and tried to lift his foot, his limb didn't cooperate and he stumbled forward. James and Sirius were trying to contain any outward laughter, but they began to lose that battle when Harper spotted a young green-clad student using his hands to pry his thighs up so he could climb the stairs.

All around them, Slytherin students were shuffling awkwardly, looking disgruntled about their apparent lack of grace they had likely been raised to exhibit. Their classmates that hadn't walked through the potion were giving their affected friends weird side-long stares and getting snappy when they fell behind on their way to class. Fussy huffs and a few frustrated groans permeated the buzz of the hall. The Marauders and girls were quickly devolving into a mess of laughing fits while students had to dodge around the slow-going Slytherins and a couple of the more volatile victims began to shriek their displeasure at their leaden limbs. Theia spotted the appearance of the professors and a couple older prefects who were eyeing the crowd warily.

"We're gonna be late to Herbology... Come on Piper." Theia looped her arm through Harper's elbow while the two of them tried stifling their giggles.

"This was bloody brilliant!" James wiped away tears from laughing so hard.

"Wait 'til you see them figure out it isn't a temporary ailment." Theia wiggled her eyebrows at the boys, bowed her head slightly before she spun around with Harper to scurry to greenhouses. Giggles consumed the pair as they had to duck around some Slytherin girls attempting to make their way down the steps; every time a girl would raise her foot off the step to descend another, her shoe would stomp down onto the next one, and the girls had their arms raised out at their sides to try to hold their balance. Theia was convinced the ungainly shuffle would never stop being hilarious.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! I apologize about the wait for this chapter... this one was a doozy to write. I haven't decided if I really like the distraction Sirius and Theia came up with but I guess it can be justified by them only being brand new third years and not knowing that much magic yet technically, and Theia wanting to do something that wasn't too destructive since she is nervous about misbehaving so soon after starting her new school... Still not sure though. -_-**

 **This is the part where I beg for reviews and feedback. :) Pretty please and pretty thank you!**

 **(UPDATE: Rereading the end of this, I noticed some seriously glaring grammar mistakes... how did no one yell at me for switching "stares" for "stairs"?)**


	4. Chapter 4 - Hogwarts, Fall 1973, Pt 2

**A/N: So sorry about the horridly long wait! This is a world-building chapter and I couldn't decide if I wanted to end this chapter here or keep going for Theia to explain to Lily, Harper, and the Marauders about her extramagical abilities. But nearly 5000 words seems like plenty for now. My semester is just about to wind down and I'm hoping I'll have more consistent time to update! Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 4**

At breakfast on one bright morning in late October, Theia groggily scraped butter and sprinkled hefty amounts of cinnamon-sugar onto her toast. She turned to Lotte at her left, "Pass the pumpkin juice when you find a free hand?" Lotte grinned around the large piece of jam slathered toast she had between her teeth, plopped the spoonful of eggs she had in one hand on her plate, and found a scrap of territory to pile the bacon from her other hand onto. After dusting off the crumbs from her fingers, Lotte heaved the big jug of deep orange juice over into Theia's waiting hands.

"May I have a dash of soda, please?" Theia spoke timidly towards her cup, still not entirely comfortable with making requests from the house elves since she was sure they were swamped down in the kitchens at this hour. When a quarter of her cup was filled with the crisply bubbling clear soda she smiled graciously and whispered a "Thank you" at the cup, half embarrassed since no one else ever thanked their dishes. Just as she was topping off her glass with the last drop of pumpkin juice that would fit, a scarlet red letter fell onto her head and landed upside-down on the plate in front of her.

"Wha-" Theia's eyes widened when the recognition hit her. _Oh gods... It's here... In front of everyone._

"A howler..." Lotte's eyes were saucers and her food laden forks in each hand hovered in front of her, forgotten in her shock at the proximity of the dreaded parcel.

The letter was smoking at the edges when Harper piped up, staring intensely at Theia's horrified face, "Do you know who it's fr-"

"ATTENTION MISS THEIA ZOE NYX, BY THE ORDER OF THE COURT OF THE M.C.U.S.A. YOU ARE HEREBY BANNED FROM ANY AND ALL CONTACT WITH THE FOLLOWING PERSONS: ICHNAEA PENELOPE BOYLE, ERIS RUCKFORD BOYLE, AND ALL ASSOCIATED PARTIES UNDER THE GUARDIANSHIP OF THESE INDIVIDUALS. ANY ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT THE ABOVE PARTIES BY MAGICAL OR NON-MAGICAL MEANS WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE LEGAL ACTION AND JUDICIAL REPRIMAND. THIS ORDER REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE NEXT 18 MONTHS UNLESS RENEWED BY THE REQUESTING PARTIES. SIGNED, JUDGE HAYMOND P. WHETHERFIELDS, MASSACHUSSETTS BRANCH, C.M.C.U.S.A."

Silence engulfed the Ravenclaw table as they all looked down at her half in confusion, half concern. Theia's eyes glossed over as she stared at the ashes that were now scattered over her abandoned cinnamon toast.

"...What in Merlin's billowing beard..." Harper glared at the spot where the letter had been, as if she could intimidate its remains into taking back the words that seemed to be upsetting her friend more and more with each passing instant. Theia could feel her eyes welling up, threatening to spill out onto the table in front of her. _Leon..._

She hurled herself out of her seat and down the aisle to escape the buzzing hall and prying eyes that felt like knives as they tried to pierce her, gauge her reaction to the rather odd sounding howler. A head of dark red hair popped up and followed her movements out the door, and a pair of horn-rimmed hazel eyes made note of the direction she turned before the giant double doors shut behind her. Lily was nearly running in pursuit of Theia, _If she reacted like that it can't be good..._ and Harper sprang up from the Ravenclaw table to follow.

"She veered to the left, Evans!" Lily glanced down at James who was leaning up from his seat at the Gryffindor bench, a snarky retort on the tip of her tongue but bit it back when she was met with a concerned expression on the usually taunting face she despised so much.

"Thanks, Potter." Lily mumbled and kept making her way out of the hall. Harper met her at the door and they both turned left to chase after their friend.

Theia's eyes were steaming as she sprinted down one corridor after another. Finally deciding she was well enough away from the crowded Great Hall, she threw herself into an abandoned classroom, not bothering to shut or lock the door behind her. She went to the back of the room and let the reality of the letter crash in around her, sobbing as she slid down the wall to slump onto the cold stone floor. She huddled into her robes and let herself break down into loud, angry, heartbroken sobs.

Her arms were wrapped securely around her and it was after a few minutes of her nails wracking across them, leaving deep red trails, when she felt two distinct auras invade the surrounding ether of the room. Lily and Harper hesitated at the door to the classroom, Lily's heart broke for the distraught girl leaning her head against the stone wall across the room crying herself ragged. Harper was the first to move, taking quiet steps into the classroom and beckoning Lily in so they wouldn't draw any unwanted attention to their whereabouts by remaining in the doorway.

Theia felt a small hand rest lightly on her shoulder and turned her red, tear-brimmed eyes on Harper who looked like she might shatter at the sight of her. Theia choked down a wail and threw herself into Harper's arms and cried against the small girl's chest as she wrapped her in a hug. Lily leaned down and sat cross-legged next to the girls, she held her hand out for Theia to hold, which she took gratefully.

Harper waited for nearly as long as she could stand to while Theia's sobs slowed, and watched as she lifted her head out of the hug and sat back upright to wipe away the tears from her face with her free hand.

"So what's it mean?" Harper was terrified she was going to send this tiny girl back into the throws of uncontrollable sobbing, but Theia further straightened her back and sniffled lightly, still holding onto Lily's hand firmly. The surrounding ether thrummed, and Theia shoved her attention to it back into the recesses of her mind.

"It means I don't have any family left anymore. I can never go back." Theia swiped at a stray stubborn tear that seemed determined not to let her put an end to her fit, "It means that it's real."

"So it was your aunt and uncle then?" Lily pressed her fingers lightly into the back of Theia's hand to try and soften the bluntness of her question. Theia nodded and sniffled, pulled out a handkerchief from within her robes and wiped her nose. She balled the scrap of fabric up in her fist, her knuckles showing the tension that still radiated within her.

"Yea, it was. They're mad they lost the suit. So they filed for a restraining order. Banned me fro- ...From seeing or talking to my little brother." She furrowed her brows as she tried to force herself to hold the threatening tears at bay. "...Leon. His name is Leon." Her voice cracked at her brother's name and she squeezed her eyes shut while Harper watched her lip and chin tremble against the weight of her sadness. Silence echoed through the room as Theia wrangled in her ragged breathing and pounding heart. When she was steadied, she kept her head down, staring intently at her blue socks, still fiddling with the handkerchief she was trying to strangle to death.

"What happened? ...What suit? Why do they have him and you're here?" Lily's eyes shone determinedly, Theia wasn't exactly quiet most days but Lily would be damned if she was going to let this girl bear this sort of sadness in silence. She kept her voice soft, and watched to gauge Theia's reaction. She didn't visibly change except to release her chokehold on the handkerchief slightly and turn it over in her hand. She brought her bloodshot brown eyes up to meet the compassion-filled green ones.

"It's kinda a long story..."

"We have time." Harper placed a timid hand on the wrist closest to her, while Lily simultaneously squeezed the opposite hand.

"Loads of time. You can tell us." Lily hesitated, "We can only really help if we know what's wrong."

Theia opened her mouth slightly and shut it again, unsure of exactly how to start the very long, convoluted story. "Do you two- ...Do you know what it means to be the Head of a House?"

"No."

"I've heard of it." Lily and Harper spoke at the same time, glanced at each other, then back to Theia.

"Purebloods have them. It's the person in charge of a family." Harper murmured, her tone implying that she was questioning her own knowledge of the concept now that she was saying it aloud.

"Oh, good, yeah that's pretty much exactly what it means." Theia reassured Harper who relaxed slightly at the validation, she hated being put on the spot. "In America, and I guess maybe here, the Head of House is in charge of an entire family's assets, estate allocations, and investments." Theia sounded like she was reciting a definition that had been quoted at her half a hundred times growing up.

"You'd have to ask a Slytherin 'bout all that." Harper quipped reflexively, the girls all sniggered regardless of the fact that they were all familiar with two particular pureblood heirs that weren't lined in silver and green trimmings every day, or any day if either of them had anything to say about it.

"Well when my parents died, I became the Head of House for both my father's family and my mother's. The Nyx family dates back at least a millennia, and my mom's family, the Galene's, is about half as ancient as that, but still obviously pretty substantial. My aunt was technically cut off from that inheritance when I was still a toddler, so the day they died, I came into one of the biggest inheritances on North America..."

"Shit."

"Harper!"

"What? That's a bloody ton of money! Well if it's wizarding gold, it's actually probably a couple tons I'd figure."

Theia bit down onto the inside of her lips and tried not to shy away from their obvious reaction to her inheritance. She hadn't planned on telling anyone about what she was worth, she didn't need the solicitation that came with it. She was brought up to be proud of who she was, but she always felt a little uncomfortable about discussing the sheer mass of her family's wealth. Sensing her discomfort with where the story had meandered, Lily switched it back to the more pressing matter.

"Why was she cut off?"

"Some stipulation in my mom's family trust that cuts off any inheritor that spends a certain percentage of the trust in a short amount of time, without contributing back into it."

"How much did she spend?"

 _"Harper."_

"Twenty-five percent in 2 and a half years."

"Numbers?"

Lily sighed and dropped her head into her free hand dramatically, exasperated with the insatiable curiosity of the Ravenclaw girl who couldn't seem to help herself. Theia emitted a raspy laugh though, Harper's bluntness seemed to put her more at ease than skirting around the topic that normal manners would dictate.

"I don't know the actual number, it was all eventually made back by my parents. But over a million at least."

It took Lily a second to translate that roughly into muggle money, but her eyebrows were knit together at the end of it, _No that can't possibly be right._

"I can't imagine that made your Aunt too cheery when you inherited her disinherited funds."

"No," Theia chuckled, "Apparently Uncle Eris was more miffed about it though. It was half his

doing."

The girls all settled into more comfortable positions, Theia straightening her back and sitting cross-legged, still clasping both Lily's and Harper's hands in hers. Lily leaned onto one hip and curled both legs around her, leaning back on her free hand to prop herself up. Harper, being the most casual, sprawled her legs out, both jutting behind where Theia was sitting, one haphazardly thrown over the other.

"When my parent's died, they must have seen it as their way back into the money they had lost out on. Since they were the only family left to my brother and I, their guardianship of the both of us was sort of just assumed. But with my being the Head of House for both families, they needed my explicit permission to touch a single Nyx or Galene copper. Which is why I had to make all the arrangements for my parents' funeral. It was relatively simple, the Nyx family tradition dictated most of the ceremony and all that, so there wasn't much in the sense of assets I had to move around to arrange the whole thing."

"What was the tradition?"

Lily would have screamed, but Harper seemed to sense when Theia was feeling the darkness of the topic she was discussing starting to creep in on her, and interrupted her with a question to lighten her back up. As infuriating as her constant questions were, Theia seemed to appreciate the temporary distractions. _Ravenclaws..._

"It's a long-standing Nyx tradition that when you die, you're cremated and buried with your wand and a tree seed or sapling, and planted on Nyx family land. We have a grove of trees that is entirely comprised of my ancestors' ashes and their wand-trees. They're the only trees on the property that we never have to maintain: they never fall, lose limbs, or anything. We call it 'going to the forest.' Based on something about the origin of the name Nyx, meaning night. _Rejoining the night, unshielded from it's boundless edges by the confines of a coffin_." Theia was quoting again, more obviously this time, as she dropped her voice into a deep, mimicky tone that sounded like a stern old grandpa that was too full of himself. The girls all giggled, Theia the loudest, before she continued.

"Once the funeral was done, Leon and I were living with them full time. I wasn't ready to go back to school yet... Leon was crying every night with me. So since we were staying, Aunt Icchy and Uncle Eris sat me down and asked if I would be able to pay for Leon's and my food while we lived with them since they didn't have the inheritance I had, and they already had three little ones to feed. It sounded reasonable to me, I was trying really hard to be mature, and they were right, they didn't have the money we did. So they took me to the bank my family vault was in to get money out for the next week's worth of groceries for Leon and I."

 _ **~~~~~~*flashback*~~~~~~**_

Her Aunt's stilettos clicked noisily on the marble floors of the bank lobby. _Those seem a little dressy for just errands... Mom always just wore sneakers- Mom..._

Theia blinked back the mist in her eyes and stopped herself from sniffling openly as the unbidden thought ebbed from her mind. She looked up and realized Uncle Eris was just finishing his recounting of the money she had withdrawn. He didn't trust the goblins to do it properly, he swears up and down they had cheated him before, 'always pocketing spare coins when nobody is watching!'

Uncle Eris looked like a man who enjoyed his vices in life. His nose was always bright pink and splotchy. Over the years his doughy physique had grown out into a true pot belly, and in order to balance out the growth of his abdomen, his salt and pepper hair had taken it upon itself to become scarce. His teeth and finger tips were always stained yellow from rolling his own cigarettes, and for that Theia always avoided any displays of affection towards him, not wanting to get any of the smell on her, which he happily obliged. His watery dark blue eyes popped up from the gold shining in the small purse he held it in, an enthusiastic gleam creeping onto the edges of his face.

"Right, all set!"

"Wonderful! Okay dearie, we are going to go get the groceries now, you don't want to come along for something so boring like that right?" Aunt Icchy, as Theia affectionately referred to her behind her back, was doing her simpering baby voice again that translated to: "We are going to go, please agree that you don't want to come so we don't have to say that you aren't welcome anyways."

For all the vibrance she may have once carried in her youth, the years spent with Uncle Eris had exposed Aunt Ichnaea to more than a few bad habits, and they showed clearly through her appearance. Her musty brown hair was a bit stringy and straw-like, lacking all the luster and volume her mother's hair had. Her gray roots were peeking through again, Theia sometimes thought maybe she was colorblind and couldn't see the clear line of gray that poked out at her part, since she never seemed to fix it. At the current moment she was distinctly overdressed in an outdated cocktail dress that hugged the lumps of her body more than it accentuated any remnants of the curves she might have had before her three children. Most notably though, her face was always simpering at one person or another, be it her 'doting' husband, one of her three 'baby-poos,' or Theia herself, and she wondered if her mouth retained a constant sour-taste or if her face just preferred to rest in that state.

Theia simply shook her head though, not trusting her voice not to mimic that horrific tone that grated on her nerves. She was trying to be grateful. She loved her Aunt and Uncle, she had no reason not to. They had always been plenty nice at holiday parties growing up. She knew there had been a bit of a sticky situation around them when she was very little, and that resulted in them no longer having access to the Galene accounts or estates, but they were still plenty amiable, in small doses anyways. But it had been weeks with them at this point and she realized that their friendliness didn't run as deep as she once thought it had. They snapped frequently, condescended her, and babied her, perhaps because they were used to their little children, who still were babies. Theia tried not to hold it against them as best she could. They were still family, and they had opened up their house to her and Leon.

"Alright, such a good girl! Now you stay here and behave, there's a book shop down the street why don't you go find a good book to read to Pheephee tonight! We will meet you there to pick you up in- How long do you think, Eris?"

"Oh, a good hour and a half at least."

"Yes yes, an hour and a half! Don't go wandering!"

With that, Ichnaea and Eris Boyle turned on their heels and exited through the thick, oak doors of the bank. Theia stood there staring at the spot they had exited through, the crushing sadness she had repressed earlier at the thought of her mother settling back into her bones. She didn't know what she was doing. Aunt Icchy and Uncle Eris simply weren't her mom and dad. It wasn't until she couldn't see the door anymore that Theia realized she was crying. In public. By herself.

Over laden with grief and a sense of being truly and utterly lost, Theia walked herself to the corner of the lobby off to the side of the door and plopped down onto the ground against the wall. She sobbed silently into her hands and wished repeatedly that no one acknowledge her existence while she had her public breakdown.

It was a few minutes before Theia calmed herself down, the tears slowing and her breathing evening out. When she looked up at the people in the sprawling lobby, no one seemed to be paying her any mind, until she caught the eye of a youngish looking witch in jade green dress robes. The woman was glancing at her while she spoke quietly to one of the goblin tellers and a human guard, each of whom had a coffee she must have just brought them in their hands. Theia could feel her eyebrows pulling together in a pout, and she tried to rid herself of the look and pointedly glance anywhere else. She didn't want to bring any more attention to herself. _Maybe if I ignore her, she'll ignore me..._

But she had no such luck. When she looked back up to see if the woman was still glancing at her, she was met with a lightly freckled face kneeling down in front of her.

"Are you okay?"

Theia hated that question. Loathed it with every fiber of her being in fact. No she wasn't okay, but she had just pulled herself together. Asking if she was okay was a guaranteed way to push her back over that precipice. And just as she knew they would, tears immediately began spilling from her burning eyes. She attempted to croak out an answer anyways.

"Yes."

The woman's eyes were sympathetic, not cloyingly so, like all the people's at the funeral had been. But genuinely sympathetic, as if it was a perfectly valid thing for a girl to be crying in the middle of a bank on a Monday afternoon and she just wanted to be there to see her through it. The woman pulled out a cleanly pressed handkerchief from within her robes that had two navy blue wings embroidered on the corner of it and held it out to her. Theia nodded in thanks and took the cloth, and wiped her raw eyes and face dry.

"Would you care for some hot chocolate and maybe a cookie?"

Theia glanced up and felt her bottom lip quiver, she had no idea why she was feeling so immensely vulnerable at the moment, but the woman was going out of her way to be kind and had hit a soft spot with her kind offer.

"Yes, please." Theia's voice was crackly and groggy, but she found herself giving a small smile to the woman as she helped Theia up from the ground with a hand.

"Come on, my office is in the back."

The woman led Theia down a hallway at the back of the lobby where the administrative offices of the bank were. When they reached the woman's office door, Theia read "Isla Griswaltz - Banking Investment Lawyer."

 **~~~~~~*End flashback*~~~~~~~**

"Isla ended up being the one to show me that my Aunt and Uncle were essentially stealing from me. Manipulating me out of money so they could go gamble or do whatever, and only using the bare minimum to maintain the façade of providing for Leon and I. And she was my legal representation during my emancipation suit."

"Woah. Killer lady sounds like."

Theia chuckled pitifully, "Oh most definitely." She sniffled again and tried to get to the point she was trying to make. "Well once Isla pointed out that I was being taken advantage of, it was also her idea to call my last remaining relative, Aunt Adrastea, to come and help me."

Theia sniffled again, and took a few slow breaths to steady herself as she made to continue.

"I filed for my emancipation, and ended up winning. But not without a lot of kick back from Aunt Icchy and Uncle Eris... They tried slandering me in the trial. Bringing up all the fits I had ever thrown throughout my childhood as evidence against my maturity to be in charge of myself. It was really horrifying the things they were willing to bring up..."

Theia stared ahead blankly, and felt somewhere off in the ether a fist was clenching with restraint and sympathy, she didn't bother to look up and check which of the girls it had been. She shook her head and let her dark locks flit around her face to clear the embarrassing memories from the front of her brain.

"I eventually won... obviously. But I'm not old enough to be guardian to Leon, emancipated or not. So he had to stay with them... I knew I wasn't going to get to see him often. I'm not a total idiot. I live half a world away. But this year is his first at Ilvermony, and Aunt Addie has been sending my long-distance letters to him, and then forwarding his replies to me... I jus- I just want to... I just miss him." Theia's voice cracked, her head ducked and her shoulders heaved, but she held onto her control by the skin of her teeth. "And now they've banned those letters. They were the last thing I had."

The last sentence had been a barely audible whisper, both Lily and Harper held her hands tightly, and Harper wiped a stray tear from her own face before Theia could glance up and catch its presence. Lily sniffled slightly.

"I'm... I'm so sorry Theia. You don't deserve that."

Theia let out a chuckle that sounded more like a sob, but looked up at Lily with a shaky smile.

"Thanks." She squeezed both girls hands and pulled them both in for a hug. The girls were laughing at their combined sappiness when recognition dawned on her of what had been tapping at the edge of her mind in the ether.

"You can come in now! Join in the festivities."

Lily and Harper looked confusedly at Theia and then at the door where she was staring. Four sheepish-looking Marauders stepped through it suddenly, as if they had walked straight out of thin air. Harper was the first to recover and pipe up.

"How long have they been eavesdropping?"

"Did you catch it all or do I have to go over it again?" Theia's mouth was quirked up in the ghost of a smirk.

"Well to be hones-" Peter was jerked back a step by Remus to stop him from finishing his sentence.

"You alright Nyx?" James stepped forward and the abashed look on his face dissolved into one of genuine concern. Theia felt her chin quiver slightly at the thought of vocally responding to that question, so she opted to nod in response instead.

"I know a thing or two about horrid families, and let me tell you, it's their loss." Sirius eased himself forward until he stood in front of the girls and offered out his hand for Theia to stand up. She took it, and helped the other girls rise next to her. After dusting off her skirt and robes, she glanced back up at Sirius, who dragged her forward and into a rough, bracing hug. James joined on one side, she quickly gestured for Remus and Peter to join them, and giggled at their timidness. Lily and Harper completed the group hug and Sirius let out a barking sort of laughter when the boys squeezed with all their might and Theia let out a gasping 'oof!' at the center of the hug.

A week later, Harper and Theia were sitting at a small table in a corner of the Ravenclaw common room. Harper's hand slid into hers again. Theia untangled her fingers and pulled her hand into her lap to rest on the edge of the paper she was trying to write. Harper let out a disgruntled huff.

"Stop."

"Stop what?"

"That!"

"That what?"

"Babying me! Holding my hand every other minute!"

"What's wrong with holding your hand? You let Lily hold your hand."

"You're treating me like some porcelain little cupie doll! I'm not going to shatter into a thousand pieces if you stop touching me for 90 whole seconds!"

The air snapped and bright gold sparks crackled around them. Harper's eyes bulged at Theia who had shut hers and was running a hand through her hair trying to calm herself down.

"I don't like being touched that much, if I'm honest. It just ...I don't know. It's frustrating."

"Alright, m'sorry."

Theia nodded in acknowledgment, still not having opened her eyes. The air around them began to settle when she spoke again.

"I'm alright. Honestly."

Harper tried not to stare, and Theia tried not to notice her staring. That had been the second time that week Theia had let her temper get the better of her and the ether had given her away each time. _Merlin have mercy... I'm going to have to spill the beans before she accuses me of being some sort of dwarven narc for using nonverbal magic_...


	5. Chapter 5 - Hogwarts, October 1973

**Chapter 5**

Theia's quill scratched across the paper quickly as she tried to draw out the maneuver replaying in her head from yesterday's match against Slytherin. She could see the slight dip the burly chaser had made before he'd out-flown Colin to score on Ravenclaw, and she figured it was exactly what Glen had wanted when he'd assigned her to study Slytherin while she sat out as a sub. He wanted her to bring back maneuvers they could tweak for their own use against Slytherin and other "brutish teams" so she certainly didn't want to forget any of the details. Thankfully, her visual memory was nearly photographic and she could picture precisely how the entire pitch had looked with everyone in their respective positions at the time of the goal.

She didn't hear Harper approach her corner of the Ravenclaw common room or her hesitant throat clear.

"Uhh... Theia?"

She was bent hard over her parchment, cursing her quill and ink softly as she drew a secondary view in another axis to show the move in 3 dimensional flight. She didn't glance up or acknowledge her nervous friend at all. So Harper tried again, louder.

"Theia... Hey. Theia."

She continued scratching away.

"Oy! Theia!"

Theia finally shot up from her hunched over position and squeaked loudly in surprise. Her hand flew up to her chest and her eyes were wide when they found Harper's face, but that wasn't the most notable thing about them in that moment. As her breath steadied Harper continued to stare at her, saying nothing. Harper's cerulean eyes were boring into hers, watching something with equal parts curiosity and... concern.

"Son of Merlin Harper, you scared me... Are you gonna sit down?" Theia's brows furrowed together while Harper stood there blankly. "Is everything okay? Earth to Harper..." Theia waved a hand in front of her face and she finally broke the intense eye contact.

"Your eyes."

"Uh yeah... what about them?"

"They were glowing."

Theia felt her throat constrict and her brain reeled for a response. The best it came up with was, "They were? Um... what color?"

"White. Or near enough. What the bloody hell was that? Do you feel alright? I said your name like three times when I came over to tell you so you could turn around or something before someone else noticed..." Harper sat down and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Are you a metamorphagus too? Why didn't you tell me?"

Harper looked wounded with her jaw jutted out and her eyebrows knit together. Theia tried not to wince.

"I'm not a metamorphagus Harper... Can you mimic what my eyes were just doing? So I can see?"

Harper reached down into her discarded book bag and pulled out the pocket mirror she used to adjust her appearance during class hours. She relaxed her face as she focused her energy, and Theia could feel the slight tug of Harper's magic move inward towards her eyes through the ether. Her eyes morphed into the lightest shade of blue Theia had ever seen before they began to turn red as they went completely clear.

"I can't get it... They turn red like an albino before they even get light enough. And besides yours weren't just white, they were glowing. As in emitting light. So what's the catch? How're you doing it?"

"I uhh... I need to get Lily."

"What? No, no, no little missy you sit! I want answers! You've been odd since your letter and I want to know what's what!"

"I'm going to tell you Piper, keep your pants on! I just want to tell you and her at the same time, alright?"

"...Alright. D'you want me to get us a book nook?"

"Yes thank you, that'll be perfect. Charm a green candle so we know which one you're in. I'm gonna go check Gryffindor Tower for her." Theia stacked her papers neatly and placed them into the front cover of her Quidditch Quick Reference book, which she tucked under her arm as she stood up. Harper held out her hand and Theia handed it over for her to take back to the dorm instead of walking around with it.

"Kay, I'mma go fetch some snacks too. Reckon this'll be a longer story than the last one." Harper flitted off towards their dorm with a swoosh of her pastel curls.

Theia scoffed out a chuckle and shook her head as she walked determinedly out of the blue-hued common room. She crossed her fingers as she stepped out into the corridor in hope that Lily would be in the tower and that someone would be outside the portrait when she got there so she could get in. The Fat Lady in Gryffindor's entrance liked her well enough but when you didn't have he password she was downright obstinate and found mortifying ways to entertain you while you waited.

Theia suppressed a shiver at the chilled castle air and pulled her wand out to transfigure her uniform shirt into a thick white sweatshirt. She was particularly adept at transfiguration, mostly due to her connection to the ether. It tended to make it easier for her to feel how each object was constructed and how her magic influenced it during the transfiguration process. The skill came in handy especially during the winter months, making it so she never had to actually carry around any sweaters. She rubbed her hands against the plush fabric and smiled to herself, _Gods I love magic._

Luck was on her side once she reached Gryffindor tower, a small trove of first years had just collectively remembered the password when she ascended the changing stairs.

Once through the portrait hole a wide grin broke its way across her face at the warm hominess of Gryffindor's common room. The fire in the hearth was shining brightly and tinged the toasted air with the faint smell of cedar and pine. Her feet began to move her towards the spiral staircase that led to the girls' dormitories, but she swerved at the last second and made for the far corner of the room where four familiar heads were conspiring close together.

"Good evening sirs. How's your Friday night going?" she purred as she sidled up alongside Peter who startled at her sudden proximity.

"Bloody Nimue..." Peter was shaking slightly as he steadied himself, Sirius threw a quick grin up at her from where he was bent over a piece of parchment next to James, and Remus patted the arm of his chair for her to sit.

"Hey, we're just watching Sirius and James tweak a charm they made up the other night. Wanna see?" Remus was leant back in the plush armchair he had claimed, with a hand rubbing small patterns across the faint scars on his chin and cheeks.

"Course! What's it supposed to do?" She whispered so as not to disturb the two focused boys doing alternating charms on the parchment.

"It's a tracer of sorts. It'll identify anyone within a certain perimeter of the parchment and orient them in relation to one another." Peter recovered and flicked his eyes up to Theia perched on Remus' chair.

"That sounds ...tricky. How's it coming?"

"Bloody slowly." Sirius growled beneath his breath after James finished the last incantation in the sequence. Names appeared on the previously blank sheet in a small circle but they were slightly jumbled and hard to read. It was clearly meant to denote the five of them huddled together though, and even had a few other mixed up names of the students sitting closest to them.

"Wow..." Theia exhaled slowly at the intricate magic, but James and Sirius seemed more disappointed than anything and quickly bent back down to the parchment to work out the kinks.

"So what has you gracing Gryffindor tower tonight?" Remus' eyes had recovered a few days ago from the last full moon, so were no longer glowing gold when Theia met them with her own.

"I'm on a bit of a mission actually. You don't know where Lily is do you?"

For the first time since Theia had arrived, James' eyes flicked up briefly, before darting quickly back to his wand work and quill. Everyone around him missed the small gesture and the faint flush of his cheeks went unnoticed.

"She came back from dinner a little ahead of us, I haven't noticed her leave. She's prolly still upstairs." said Remus, "Need her for something special?" Remus narrowed his gaze slightly while Theia inspected her nailbeds closely.

"I'll tell you later. Girl stuff."

"Mhmm..."

Theia refocused on James' and Sirius' charms when they began again and she held her attention in the ether around the parchment to see how their spells were influencing it. Sirius had added a tweak to circumscribe each of the names in a box so that the letters wouldn't become jumbled while they free-floated, and when that adjusted charm passed his lips, she felt its effects potently on the paper. She was smirking by the time they had finished the spells and wasn't surprised when it finally worked the way they had wanted.

"Yes!" James' fists shot into the air in triumph and there was a victorious glint in Sirius' eyes as he continued to stare at the enchanted parchment and he wrestled an arm around his best mate's shoulders.

"Girl stuff Nyxie? You know that's my favorite." Sirius lounged back in his seat at last and threw his hands behind his head to emphasize his recline. Theia stuck her tongue out at him and stood up before she drew any more attention to the topic she would have liked to avoid. She brushed out the bunches in her sweater and pulled the sleeves down past her hands.

"Where'd you get that jumper... Looks a little big on you." the smirk Sirius had been wearing fell away and his eyes roved over the foreign article that appeared too big by his judgment to belong to her.

"It's mine. I transfigured my uniform shirt on the way over here. Dratted drafty castle." Theia was smiling cheekily at him while his features relaxed at the revelation.

"Impressive spell-work, show me how sometime?" The feigned innocence in Sirius' eye shifted, "Jamesie here could use with a wardrobe update."

"Hey!"

Theia's laugh peeled out easily, "Name your time Black." She winked to sell the treachery and Sirius earned a hearty thump from James in response. "Anyways... As much as I'd love to stay here and rouse up trouble with you guys all night, a lady's duty calls." She curtsied daintily, and stuck her tongue out once more for good measure before escaping upstairs to find Lily.

Once up the stairs, Theia knocked quickly on the ajar door to Lily's dorm room and found her practicing a braiding charm on her roommate Mary's hair.

"Theia! Look what one of the older girls showed us! It's a French braid! Do you want to try on your hair?"

Theia walked over to the mirror the girls were seated in front of, with Mary just in front of it and Lily positioned behind her to practice the charm. Mary had the sort of blonde hair that varied in shades between bright sunshine gold of the top strands, to a darker dirty blonde of the ones beneath. The result was two multitoned golden braids that cascaded down her head and over her shoulders.

"That looks so pretty on your Mary, really magnificent." Theia stood admiring the gold locks and reflected on her own single-toned dark brown ones with slight remorse. _Mine would never look like that... not much to be done for it though._

"We've mostly been practicing back and forth on each other's hair cause it's a little easier to see it on another person's head, but we were gonna try it on our own next. Do you wanna join us? What brought you all the way up here tonight?" Lily glowed brightly as she always did when she got excited about something, and Theia couldn't tell if it was her aura that did that or Lily herself was just blessed with a particularly glow-y complexion. She smiled back at her infectious smile nonetheless and nodded briskly at the two giddy Gryffindors. Mary quickly shifted around so Theia could take her place and then both girls sat behind her to double team her dark tresses.

With both girls charming her hair, it was pulled back and completed in nearly no time at all. The girls sat admiring their handiwork and Theia grabbed the end of one of Lily's long auburn braids and stuck it over her upper lip as a mock mustache. They quickly dissolved into a fit of giggles as they all started taking mismatched braids to their faces and doing mock gentlemen's voices to go with their mustachio's. Theia clutched a stitch in her side and sat back up in front of the mirror.

"Actually Lil, I came over to see if you'd be down for a book nook night in Ravenclaw. Harper is getting us some snacks as we speak."

"Ohh snacks! That means there's a juicy story in there store! Yes, I'd love to! Mary d'you want to come to?"

Theia held her breath until Mary perked back up from the floor, "Oh! I can't actually, I promised Ren I'd go down to a card game with her versus a couple of the boys. She really needs me, she's right rubbish at cards." She bounced up and across the room to her bed to retrieve slippers and a thicker jumper that she could go down to the common room in and smiled sheepishly, "Thanks though."

"Alright! Let me grab some shoes and we can go!" Lily sprang up and the girls departed the dorm shortly after. At the bottom of the stairs, Theia's eyes wandered over to the Marauder's corner and she threw a quick wave at a laughing Sirius who was shuffling a deck of cards. He winked back while James, Remus, and Peter a second later, all waved heartily back. _Of course it's them they're playing... Mary better be good._

"Don't be a stranger Nyx!" James shouted across the common room. Theia laughed and followed Lily out through the portrait hole.

They made good time back to Ravenclaw tower, chatting in hushed tones since everything seemed to reverberate off the stone walls of the castle.

The riddle at the door stopped them for a moment, "I'm tall when I'm young and I'm short when I'm old. What am I?" Theia's puzzled look resembled a slight scowl, and Lily scratched at the base of one of her braids.

"A pencil?"

"Oh, a candle!"

"Both suitable answers, very well done." The sphinx nodded minutely as the door swung upon and the two girls high-fived before they entered.

"So what's it about? The story I mean." Lily looked quizzically at Theia, who was scanning the far upper wall for the green lit cubby. Once she spotted it she made for it, only realizing she hadn't verbally responded once she reached the wall.

"Oh, uh... well you remember that thing about ether I said on the first night, after I got sorted?" A faint blush was running its way up Theia's neck. She had told people before but the classmates she had told at Ilvermony had known her since childhood, far longer than just the measly month and a half Lily and Harper had known her. She felt that probably justified her nerves, but they definitely needed to know.

"Yeah, I remember." Lily gave her an encouraging smile.

"It's about that."

"Oh, well it's a good thing Ren is rubbish at cards then."

Theia giggled in response and lifted her hand up to the first foothold embedded in the stones that would lead 15 feet up to the cubby above. The cubbies in Ravenclaw Tower, or 'book nooks' as they were affectionately referred to by the resident students, were a unique feature in the design of the common room. They were tiny lofts carved into the stone walls that were elevated and isolated, spread about the room. They were mostly used for students that needed to be alone and quiet for their studying, but on the weekends they were a great place to get privacy for gossip between small groups of friends. Each cubby was strewn with cushions and lit with floating tea lights, like the rest of the room, and some had a short round table you could sit at. It was rumored that when the castle had been constructed, Rowena Ravenclaw had concealed more of these nooks throughout different places, even in the other common rooms, save perhaps Slytherin. Older students had located a number of them in the library, though ones outside of Ravenclaw tower required you to locate them by tapping the correct brick with your wand or something similar. The nook Harper had picked for them was lit with tea lights she had charmed green so they could easily find her, and she was lounging patiently, picking at the food while she waited.

When Theia poked her head above the ledge, Harper shuffled over and made more room for the arrival of the two girls. Once all three were settled in comfy spots, Lily and Harper looked quietly at Theia with large expectant eyes and waited.

She steeled her bravery, exhaled, and shakily began. _Mom always said if you want to move forward, you have to trust._

"Okay so..." To her embarrassment, her voice wavered a bit, so she cleared her throat daintily and pushed on. "Uhh... Well you guys have noticed, or I guess maybe not, I don't know, but umm... You may have noticed I do more accidental magic than most other kids our age."

Lily and Harper shared a look, then turned back to Theia and nodded simultaneously for her to continue.

"Well, umm, there's a reason for it. You guys have both heard of ether? In Divination first week I think..."

Both girls nodded again.

"Well they brush over it really basically in that class... The ether is essential to magic. Or it is magic. Th-they're the same... Witches and wizards perform magic by pushing their will into the ether. Seers give prophecies by being given a piece of the ether around them to flow through them, uncontrolled. A Celestial can pull things out of the ether at will." Theia paused, gauging their reactions, but all she picked up around them was rapt attentiveness and boiling curiosity. "I'm a Celestial."

Harper spoke first.

"I don't get it."

"So you're a Seer? Or like one rather?" Lily's dark copper eyebrows pulled together as her mind whirred to piece it together.

"Um... Not really. See, a Seer is more like a vessel. The ether flows through them when they give a prophecy, they usually don't remember giving it, and they aren't in control of themselves when they do it. I can control it... to an extent. I'm not all that great at it yet." She was getting nervous and twirled the end of a braid between her fingers, grateful for some small thing to focus on.

"So what's it mean? Your eyes earlier? Was that the ether?"

"Yeah, they only glow bright white like that when I'm tapping into it deeply. It's sort of like a living breathing thing, the ether. It contains memories and souls and... well everything. I thought I was just picturing the quidditch game from yesterday in my own mind, but I guess I was more focused than I realized."

"Memories? What kind of memories?" Lily was leaned forward over her criss-crossed knees, completely enthralled by the 'new' kind of magic.

"All of humanity's." Theia's voice was hushed and her eyes were fixed on her lap. "Everyone's connected through it. Every terrible, wonderful, amazing thing that has happened... and will happen, to humanity is in there. I can pull out the mundane things that I'm closely connected to, and the rest... Well it's usually only dreams when I see it, and it's the big events that affect a lot of people."

"Wow..." Lily's eyes were giant green saucers, she stared in wonder at the wall across from her, trying to grasp the idea.

"You've got all of human history and future in that stupid pretty head of yours and you're looking at a school quidditch match... Merlin save you." Harper held her face in her hand and shook her head disappointedly. The tension broke over Theia so suddenly she burst out in her loud belly laugh and rolled across the cushion in mirth. Lily and Harper couldn't refrain from joining in and dissolved into fits of their own.

"So that's what you can do then? Look at human memories and prophecies before they're given?" Lily dragged her head off the pillow she was giggling into and began to steady her breathing.

"No, no, it's more than prophecies, and there's auras too." Theia wheezed and wiped the tears that has streamed down her face with the back of her sleeve, "Plus magic in general is different for me."

"What'd you mean?"

"And what's an aura?"

"An aura is the mood and emotion you emit into the ether around you. All living things do it. I can read them." Lily's eyes darted around the nook, quickly outlining her two friends; there wasn't anything they were emitting that she could see.

"What am I thinking right now then?" Harper's face was still flushed but her breathing had slowed back down.

"It's not _mind_ reading Harp. It's auras. They're different, it's more ...primal. You can't use Occlumency against aura-reading. And only Celestials see them all the time."

"So what's mine?" Harper persisted.

Theia lifted her eyes and met Harper's ever-changing ones. Her mind reached out and she said, "Excited. Giddy. And a little nervous. As always." She kept her eyes locked, "Your aura is really... colorful. It's the most fluid one I've ever encountered. You embrace each moment a little differently than the last, but there's always an underlying nervousness that ebbs and flows through you. I could probably pick it out of a crowd."

The corners of Harpers mouth quirked up a little at the last sentence after having fallen from the one before.

"My turn!" Lily shot up like a rocket and stared determinedly into Theia's eyes, who laughed at the intensity.

"Lively for one right now. Never dull. And almost never negative. Yours kind of glows warmly and spreads out freely, where it touches all the people around you. It's probably why you make friends with just about everyone you meet. I've only met one other person whose aura is as far-reaching and as positive as yours."

Lily beamed and reached forward to wrap Theia into a hug. She accepted it greatly and felt a wash of emotion and acceptance consume her for a moment. She ducked her head into Lily's shoulder and held the tears at bay with all her might. When she sat up her eyes were misty but her cheeks were mercifully dry.

"What did you mean when you said magic is different?" Harper had leaned forward and placed a hand on Theia's shoulder while she composed herself.

"Uh, well it's just different. Since I can see through the ether. I learn charms and spells quicker because I can see and feel it travel as I cast it, and so I can make better adjustments. Potions is an easier class for me because I can feel how the ingredients are reacting and what the potion will do by touching it or the vapors. I can transfigure things," She tugged on the front of her jumper, "Same concept. It feels like cheating, but it's just that I can see what others can't. I still have to perform everything correctly and memorize all the steps."

In first year, Theia had written to her mom in a panic that her use of the ether in classes could be considered cheating, terrified that she would get expelled for it. Her mother had reassured her though that while it is an advantage to be sure, it isn't cheating because she was still doing all the work herself. It was one of the reasons she didn't like to tell many people about that particular perk however, to avoid the disgruntlement it could cause her classmates.

"Okay so what I heard is that you're my tutor until 7th year. Brilliant." Harper's deadpan expression caused Theia and Lily to explode into another fit of laughter.

"M'glad you told us, Theia," Lily said around a sip of pumpkin juice she had taken to ease the final giggles. "That seems like a hefty secret to bear all by yourself."

"Yeah, right now you two, a couple of the teachers, and Professor Dumbledore are the only ones that know. It is a little bit of a dangerous secret, though there hasn't been a Celestial in like a thousand years. But still, it's definitely not something everyone should know..."

"We won't tell."

"Cross our hearts and hope to die."

"What?!"

"You didn't say that as a kid growing up when your friends swore you to secrecy?"

"No! Merlin, muggles are a morbid lot!"

"It's not literal Piper!"

Theia quietly chuckled to herself while she watched her two colorful friends bicker back and forth.

"Thank you guys. I really- I really appreciate it. That I could tell you. It means a lot."

Lily smiled brightly, and Harper matched it. The rest of the conversation devolved into a grilling of Lily and Theia about how they did their braids and why Harper didn't have any. The girls stayed tucked away in the nook giggling and trying out different charms until just before curfew when Harper and Theia walked Lily back to Gryffindor tower. Once she had finally crawled into her bed, Theia passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow and dreamed of her new friends, quidditch, and Leon all together in the back field of her old house in Massachusetts. It was one of the best sleeps she had had since arriving.

 **A/N: I am so so sorry about the long wait for this chapter, and it's not quite 5k words but it's decently close. I finally finished my didactic year and clinical rotations should hopefully offer me a little more time for consistent writing. Also once these characters get a little older, I have a bunch of stuff pre-written and planned out, so hang in there with me if you can! I hope you like it, please let me know what you're all thinking and if I missed any edits or corrections! OH and specific shout out to _Erimenthe_ for continually reviewing my chapters! You're the light of my eye, thank you so much for the support! :) I love seeing new reviews, it really lights a fire under me to get the next chapter sorted out! **

**Oh also! Can anyone guess who has the matching aura to Lily's?! (HMMM I WONDER *COUGH*COUGH*)**


	6. Chapter 6 - Hogwarts, Fall-Winter 1973

**Chapter 6:**

"Well I have to be realistic... it certainly played a part in why I was sorted into Ravenclaw. All the knowledge of human kind accessible to me... if that doesn't scream 'know-it-all' then I don't know what does."

"So... would you say you're... an ethe-realist?"

"UGH!"

"JAMES!"

James was chuckling maniacally to himself, wrapped in a ball of blankets on the floor across from Theia. Sirius looked morbidly offended at the absolutely _abysmal_ pun and was shaking his head in disbelief. Peter had a smirk forming on his face in an uncanny resemblance of his dark-haired friend, but his eyes were giving away the mischief he had brewing with a nervous sort of twinkle.

Theia had rolled her eyes at James' poor excuse for a joke, but she was mostly focused on refraining from vomiting or showing her panic, or both. The boys had hardly reacted at all to what she was telling them about being a Celestial, and she was worried beyond belief that they were going to call her crazy and ditch her for someone more palatably normal. So she just focused on counting out her breathing in her head.

"How many other people have you told?" Peter appeared to be of the most sober mind in the group, but had surprisingly asked the fewest questions as she disclosed her story.

"Uhh... well I told Lily and Harper last week. Other than that just a few professors and Dumbledore of course."

"Last week?!" James sputtered. He looked like a half-emerged caterpillar with blankets tangled around his legs and one strewn over his head.

"Well..."

"She can tell whoever she wants mate." Sirius' mood was halfway between Peter and James, and had only succumbed to one of James' better wise-cracks throughout the evening. He was smiling as warmly as ever though and Theia kept returning to it when she felt her bravery to finish her story waning. Remus had been entirely silent ever since she had explained auras to the group, Theia was trying not to let it distract her from the constant stream of banter between the others.

"I know that. But... I was your friend before Evans and Hildago wasn't I?" James looked dejected and had downcast his eyes in apparent defeat.

"Of course Jamesie," Theia smirked when his head perked back up at the nickname he didn't quite like, "It's just... girl code. I had to tell them first. It's how girls bond or whatever."

"I can bond." James had jutted out his lower lip, and looked up confusedly when Theia burst out into a loud laugh for the first time that evening. "S'not funny! I can't believe you told Evans before me!"

Unfortunately James' indignation only fueled Theia's laughter as she keeled over onto one side and cracked herself up into the floor boards. Peter snickered into his hand and Sirius chuckled and ruffled James' blankets on top of his head. She pulled herself together and wiped away the stray tears that had leaked through her hysterical laughter.

"It wasn't intentional I swear, Harper just noticed something was up before you guys and I wanted to tell them both at the same time. She has an advantage of living with me you know, the odds were in her favor." James looked mildly appeased by Theia's explanation, but curled into his blanket cocoon tighter in case he decided to feel more betrayed in a moment.

Theia caught the realization hit Sirius that Remus had been looking rather stony-faced for a while, and her mouth ran dry as the expression fell from his face as well to be replaced by a thoughtful mask. James blinked at Theia while she stared at Remus and Sirius across from her, and then swiveled his head towards the boys.

"What's going on lads?"

Theia felt herself cringe minutely at the lack of tact and her breathing accelerated at the mounting confrontation she could feel coming. Mercifully, recognition clicked into place on James' face before he continued, and if Peter was in the dark, he was keeping it to himself while the other three boys began alternatively glancing between each other and Theia. The stress of the moment compounded inside her mind and she cracked before anyone could say something that would set it off in an uncontrollable direction.

"Before anyone says anything... Yes Remus, I know."

Remus shut his eyes and turned his face away from her, when he finally brought it back to her the tension in the room was palpable and it took every ounce of her willpower not to squirm under the ferocity of his glare.

"The whole time?" His voice sounded distant under the apparent restraint he was holding over his temper.

"No not the whole time... The train ride in was during the new moon, so I didn't pick it up til a couple weeks later." She took a quick breath and rolled through the guilt that was itching at her, "I'm so sorry Rem, it wasn't intentional I swear."

Sirius' blank face held his emotional reaction to the scene at bay while he watched and waited; there wasn't anywhere for Theia to look but Remus' intensifying face. James looked utterly torn between the decision of being upset on his friend's behalf or relieving the distress of the other. Peter appeared to be more confused than anything and was leaning slightly away from the group apprehensively.

"Unintentional? Didn't like what you saw then?"

"Wha-? Remus no, It doesn't- It wasn't on purpose is all. I-I just saw it."

"Saw what Theia?!"

"Your wolf!" Her heart was pounding in her chest. She knew that he had a right to be upset, and she had anticipated it when she decided to tell the group about herself, especially her aura reading. But that didn't make dealing with it in person any easier.

"You _saw_ it?" Remus' tone was dripping with condescension, which was one of his admitted defense mechanisms. He hadn't ever unleashed it on one of his close friends though, and the feeling, while satisfying to see her shrink away from him, was also disturbing and his wolf was pacing within him unsteadily.

"Yes! Not like literally... With my mind's eye or whatever! It was a couple weeks after we got here when the moon cycle was waxing..." Remus pinched the bridge of his nose, his resolve at keeping his temper starting to break. Theia decided to take the momentary pause to continue and hopefully defuse him, "Remus... I- I know this- I know it's an invasion of privacy. And I'm so, _so_ sorry. I would never tell a soul."

"Oh thank Merlin! I'm so _relieved_ that it's enough that you nosed your way in and know just for yourself!" Theia sucked in an indignant breath but before she could retort he continued, "Why didn't you tell me right away?"

"Because you didn't tell me! I figured you weren't ready for me to know! So I didn't want to butt in where I wasn't welcome!" Her chest heaved while her anger strained at her seams. "I didn't want to make you uncomfortable by saying I knew without telling you how! I was keeping your secret! Only _I_ knew that I knew, alright?!"

His temper clashed with hers readily, anger was something both his wolf and the tumultuous teenage boy understood well so he ran with it rather than facing any other less certain feelings.

"Yeah and it involved me! I had a right to know!"

"Remus it doesn't change anything!"

"Oh bull-SHIT IT DOESN'T!" he roared at her.

"IT DOESN'T!" She could feel rather than see the edges of the room starting to blur as she rose to his bait. She squeezed her eyes shut and focused on one steadying breath, this had devolved quickly and she needed to regain her footing. When her voice returned, it sounded small. "I would never say that I know how it feels to be you Remus. Or that I will ever know the persecution you face and will face over your lifetime because of what you are and can do..." She took his momentary silence as permission to continue, "But I do know what it feels like to not be in total control. Of yourself. Of your reactions. Of your life. I get that. And I wouldn't ever betray it. Or you."

"Yeah. You get it alright." Remus scowled into the floorboards with his arms wrapped around his chest protectively.

The anger on Theia's features finally cracked with Remus' dismissal, she felt her chin tremble and tears prick the corners of her eyes. The mask Sirius had been holding over his emotions slipped the tiniest bit when he clenched his jaw. James' breath was coming in pants as if he was the one in the fight, and the color had all but drained from Peter's face as he watched his two normally amiable friends battle it out.

"I won't tell anyone. I- I thought maybe by telling you my secret it would make up for me knowing yours. Trading a secret for a secret. But I won't tell anyone." She couldn't stand to just sit there another second, Remus' rejection, while warranted, had stung more than she had ever planned for. She stood up from her spot on the floor and turned to go. Emotions were bubbling up in Remus however, and he made a desperate grasp for the anger again.

"Why do you even care Theia?"

When she turned back his gaze was more of stubbornness than anything else and her frustration boiled over again. "BECAUSE! I don't need a reason to care Remus! I just do!"

She saw the wolf's tail flick at the same time Remus' eyes flashed gold as the instinct washed over him, his voice was bitter steel, "You're lying."

This time it wasn't only her anger and rejection swirling inside of her. Her eyes steadily bore into his at the challenge, and the longer she looked, the more her control over her temper began to slip. A spontaneous whim of unbound bravery overwhelmed her and she unleashed herself entirely. Her dark eyes began to fade to a soft, opalescent white and the boys felt their breath catch in their throats.

"Fine. I'll show you why then." Her voice echoed eerily in the confined room.

Her eyes shined a vicious bright white and the room shifted around them. The boys all stumbled as their new surroundings crashed into sudden existence. Their eyes reeled around and each of them reached out and jumped up.

"Bloody fucking Merlin! Where are we?! What happened to Hogwarts?!" Peter was clutching his chest with his chubby fingers while he stared wide-eyed at the new hallway they all appeared to be standing in now.

"Pete! I got you buddy!" James leaped over to him and threw an arm over his shoulder. His eyes darted everywhere while he attempted to assess if he recognized the house they were in; it wasn't his nor any of his friends. He glanced at Sirius but he seemed just as unfamiliar with their new environment as he was, so he figured it couldn't have been his house or anyone he knew. Sirius took a step back in the hallway and felt the edge of the bed he had just been leaned up against behind his calf.

"James! I can feel the bed behind me!" Sirius made a grab for the place his bed post should have been and found it, invisible in the middle of the strange hallway. "We're still in Hogwarts!"

"Pete! Grab something! What was close to you in the dorm?" James groped blindly around him until both he and Peter found another bed post and trunk.

Remus had jumped up with the other boys but had otherwise remained perfectly still as he stared off with Theia. They were all standing outside a door in a brightly lit hallway at the top of a grand-looking staircase, and something was compelling him to keep his eyes glued on the witch across from him. A disturbance in the room beyond the door started coming into focus and Theia broke her gaze from him to look through the door just as two shades, a man and a woman, appeared at the end of hallway running headlong for them. Remus stumbled back to make space for them but wasn't quite quick enough, the man that should have bowled him over was unimpeded by him and reached the door just before his female companion flew past the threshold.

"Ghosts!" Peter yelled.

"Don't be ridiculous! We're in a vision!" Sirius barked, "Listen! Do you hear her?" He was intently focused on the room beyond the door where clouded shrieks of terror could just be made out. The surroundings shifted suddenly, bringing the room into existence without any one of them taking a step towards the door.

The scene that met them was nothing short of harrowing, and all but one felt their stomachs drop.

A small girl with dark hair and glowing white eyes was clutching at a doll in her lap, and was screaming in unadulterated terror. Her parents were both on their knees at her side and were struggling to catch their breath.

"Lexor what's happening?" the woman stammered out. The small Theia had tears streaking down her face and was sobbing incomprehensibly between shrieks. After a large gasp of air, they were finally able to make out a few words.

"A wolf under his bed! Daddy! A WOLF! A WOLF! Mama he's gonna get himmm!" She dissolved into screaming sobs again as her mother's face drained of color. Remus felt his throat constrict but couldn't tear his eyes away from the shades of Theia and her family interacting in the vision.

"Macy! The baby! Go get Leon NOW!" The woman was already up and tearing back out of the room while the man dragged little Theia into his lap and was bellowing to her retreating form, "YOUR WAND! TAKE OUT YOUR WAND!"

Little Theia was rocking back and forth in her father's lap while he ran his hand over her head and through her hair repeatedly, though she seemed immune to his attempts at calming her. She was still sobbing and intermittently crying out about a wolf beneath a boy's bed and soon her mother reappeared bearing her wand and a small toddler sleepily clinging to her.

"There's no one in the house Lex, I triple checked." She clutched the small boy to her chest and sat back down across from her husband on the floor.

"He's gonna get him, he's gonna get him. Wolf... Daddy, a wolf. He's hiding under his bed."

"Who's bed Theia? Where is the wolf hiding sweet girl?"

"Under Remy's bed, Daddy! In a cottage! He locked the door and he's waiting! His mommy and daddy don't know! He's gonna get himmmm!" She whimpered loudly and her dad's hands picked back up into her hair again to try and soothe her. Remus felt like his face must have burst into flames when a set of hazel, silver, and ocean blue eyes darted up to his frozen form.

"Where's the cottage? Do you know where you are?" Theia's father cooed softly in her ear.

"Lex..." The woman looked terrified and reached out towards her daughter.

"I dunno. I dunno. I- I've never been there. It's foggy and ...rocky outside."

" Lexor, what do you mean 'where is she'?" They could tell her mother was straining to keep a cap on her anxiety and confusion for the sake of her already panicked child.

"Mace... we knew this would happen." Lexor didn't take his eyes off his daughter's face. "Theia. Honey, who's in the house with Remy?"

"His mommy and dad. And a werewolf." She was taking ragged breaths in between sentences, but was holding the worst of her tears at bay for the moment.

"A werewolf... Can he hear you darling? Can Remy hear you? Have you spoken to him?"

"He can't hear me daddy! He can't hear me and I've yelled and yelled at him to run but he's sleeping and he can't _hear_ me!"

"Alright, it's alright, I've got you, I can hear you." He rocked with her back and forth in his lap and dropped his voice to a murmur to soften the blow of his next words, "Is the werewolf a man or a wolf yet? Where's the moon?"

"It's coming." She whispered. "He's gonna get hurt papa. He's gonna get so, so hurt." Tears were shining with the light from her eyes and streaming down her cheeks again. Lexor wiped the ones he saw fall and smoothed back her hair again.

"Okay baby, it's okay... Is he going to live?"

"Yes."

"Alright," He steeled himself against the pain his small child was about to witness. "He is going to get hurt sweet girl. We're gonna be here though, we've got you. You have to be brave. You have to be brave for him, okay?"

"Okay... I'm gonna hold his hand." Little Theia whispered and reached her small hand out to rest floating midair in front of her. "I'm gonna take his pain away."

"Theia, no!" The serenity her father had been exhibiting cracked abruptly, "He's too far away! You can't control-! No, we're gonna be right here til morning. You have to be brave. Hold his hand."

She nodded reluctantly and stayed very still until a minute or so later she began to pant again and became panicked. "It's starting! Daddy it's starting! RUN REMY RUN! WAKE UP!"

Small shrieks tore through the room and they all looked on in horror as bright slashes appeared across her skin, mimicking the real ones little Remy was getting across the sea. She grit her teeth and ground out screams of terror in her father's lap for what seemed like an age and an instant all at once. When the scene finally melted away, real tears were dripping down the faces of the four young wizards and the one witch left standing in the dimly lit dorm. The full grown Theia had her dark brown eyes again, and she looked near the verge of collapse as she stood across the room from them.

"You-" Remus' voice cracked, "You saw that?"

Choked up, Theia could do nothing but nod weakly.

"Why?" His voice was broken and his breaths were ragged from having relived his attack from the perspective of a small girl across the Atlantic.

"I don't know. A month later I saw your first transformation too." Theia's voice was weak and garbled with exhaustion but she barreled on, "Remy from my vision all those years ago wasn't Remus Lupin. I didn't put it together until after I saw your wolf that day in the court yard with the Slytherins."

Remus' eyebrows clutched together as he pulled himself out of the memory of his attack and back to the day he interrupted those boys harassing Theia. Tears welt up in his eyes and all his resolve to stay angry melted away. Theia could feel the release of his tension and swayed in place at the relief that was overtaking her. Sirius, James, and Peter all lunged forward to make a grab for her, but Remus was quickest and pulled her into a fierce hug that she fell gratefully into.

"I'm so sorry Thay. I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have had to see that... I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

"No Remus I'm sorry. I should have told you. I should have said so when I knew. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Please please please."

The two of them were crying into each other's shoulders, trying to pull themselves together and falling back apart at the same time.

"I'm glad you know. It's okay. I'm sorry." He was rubbing small circles between her shoulder blades while she clutched at herself in a ball against his chest.

James wiped his eyes from beneath his glasses and stuck an arm out against Sirius' chest to hold him back as he stepped forward to join the other two in the center of the room. The three looked on as they calmed down and their blubbering apologies slowed into sad chuckles. James decided to run with the lighter mood of the laughter and finally broke the silence.

"So that's the ether eh?"

"Yeah, that's the ether." Theia chuckled tiredly and dried her face with her sleeves. Remus stood alongside her with his arm over her shoulder and squeezed comfortingly when he joined in on the strained laughter of the group.

"So..." Peter took a pregnant pause for everyone to look at him, "you realize we're now obligated to call you 'Ethee' right?" He looked so proud, Theia would have sworn there was no way his cheeks could get a more illuminant shade of pink. Nothing brought Peter more pride than his ability to think of nicknames, and he'd been secretly waiting for weeks for the opportunity to present itself to think of one for this new friend they had adopted. A beat of silence passed in the wake of his declaration; a reluctant smile emerged on her face and she rolled her eyes.

"Atta boy Petey!" Sirius beamed with pride as he pushed past James and pulled Theia in to a hug and mussed her hair. She grumbled and squirmed but a small smile was peaking through her tear-stained features when he finally pulled away. James patted her heartily on the back and Peter rocked back and forth on his heels with a victorious grin on his round face.

"Ugh, does having a nickname mean I have to have perpetually messed up hair now too?" She shot her tongue out at James who had also quickly mussed her hair before getting a shove from her.

"Yes, it's initiation." James grinned cheekily at her.

"Don't worry, not all of us are perpetually tousled." Sirius threw a sly wink at her and let out a hearty barking laugh when a pillow thwacked him in the back of the head.

Everyone froze in a standoff and Theia looked around before she couldn't hold it in any longer, "So you guys don't hate me and think I'm completely insane?" Her heart skipped what she would have guessed was several beats while the boys all glanced around at each other.

"What are you on about, witch?" Sirius met her eyes with his half smile lifting up his face and she felt much closer to whole again. Peter and Remus both nodded encouragingly at her. James was wielding another pillow and wearing a devious smile when all hell broke loose.

Pillows flew every which way, thumping heads, sides, and rears without mercy. It ultimately led to a room that resembled a snow globe more than a boys dormitory as feathers endlessly rained down.

Later that night back in Ravenclaw tower, Theia was still plucking stray feathers from her hair and clothes as she readied herself for bed. It was an uneasy night for her, she tossed and turned while she glimpsed more visions. The next morning the boys waved her over to sit with them at the Gryffindor table like they had each Sunday since the start of term, and they all fell back into an easy routine only now with a stronger bond between them.

Christmas break had never come so fast in her entire life, she would swear on Merlin's diary. Theia was currently twisting a stray curl around her wand in Charms class while Professor Hectarus briefed the class on how today's exercise would go. Theia knew it would go exactly the same way it had the 3 classes before, so she was only paying enough attention to avoid getting called out for not paying attention. Thankfully the Gryffindor's around her had adopted similar mindset so she didn't stick out with her limited eye contact.

Harper was to her left and Lily and Mary were to her right. James and Sirius were in the back row, two or three behind her current seat. And Remus was with Peter off to the side in the row directly behind them. They had been learning and practicing their "seize and pull" spell since Thanksgiving, but seeing as Hogwarts didn't partake in that holiday, no one else seemed to associate it with a landmark and therefore didn't realize how long they had been working on it. Theia was so thoroughly bored with it she almost audibly groaned when Professor Hectarus broke them up into pairs again to work on seizing a pillow from their partner's grasp and pulling it towards themselves across the room. It had been fun the first couple times they were successful, with pillows flying madly to and fro across the room, being ripped from peoples hands, and bulldozing unsuspecting victims over when they were misdirected. But the majority of the class had just about perfected their technique, so nothing exciting had happened all week. Theia was paired up with Lily, having experienced that it was unfair to work with Harper who tended to need more time to pick up the precise hand and verbal commands of charms, so she worked with Mary who was suitably patient with her.

Lily stood across the classroom holding out yet another violet linen pillow with a nonplussed expression on her face while she waited for Theia to pull it from her. She was idly chatting with Remus stationed next to her. Theia threw a quick glance at Peter who was the pillow-bearer for Remus currently. Without a second thought she pointed her wand at Remus' loosened tie and cast the spell.

"Carpeveni" The tie slid loose from it's knot around his neck and her free hand snatched it from the air as it shot across the room. "Whoops!" Remus was gaping in shock while Theia stood twirling his tie around with a knowing smirk on her face.

"Very funny," He found his voice again once a few people began sniggering around him, "Brilliant spellwork. Think you can send it back? I do have other classes today."

"Oh no, no, no Remus my boy. Don't you know the rule? Finder's, keeper's." Theia sung the last line and lifted a single dark brow at Remus' slight glare. "Looks like Ravenclaw just claimed some Gryffindor colors as a prize."

Remus scoffed, glanced to see if Professor Hectarus had noticed yet, he hadn't, and pointed his wand slyly at Theia. "Hope you know what you're starting Nyx."

"Finally! Never thought it would take so long to provoke a Gryffindor into having some fun!" Instead of raising her wand to meet his as he had sort of expected, she stood up straighter and let her arms fall down at her side, demonstrating that it was his turn to try and steal an object off her person. He wanted to aim for something smaller, to rub it in that she wasn't the only one who was more than a little bored with the over-stuffed pillows as targets. Once he honed in on the object he threw one last glance at Professor Hectarus who was extracting a student from a pillow that had morphed around their torso when their partner had miscast the spell. With a growing smile on his face he cast the spell back at her.

"Carpeveni!"

The hair-tie that had been holding Theia's long dark hair in her favorite high ponytail came flying off her head and spun onto Remus' outstretched index finger. He wore a smug grin and Peter whooped beside her.

"Oh me next!" Lily clapped and laughed so heartily it made her deep red hair shake and shimmer around her face. She sucked in her cheeks to wipe the silliness off her face and looked as solemnly as she could at Peter who bolted up straight, waiting.

"Carpeveni!"

The crumpled scrap of parchment stuffed into Peter's pants pocket had only a small corner showing, but it flew into Lily's waiting hand all the same. The trio clapped quietly for her and she waved the parchment like a handkerchief.

Peter readied his wand next and took a second to decide what on Lily's person he was comfortable trying to steal. Once he cast the spell the sweater she had tied around her waist landed clumsily on his face. They all burst out laughing and had to hold their hands over their mouths to keep their volume at a relatively unnoticeable level.

Suddenly, a candy from Remus' shirt pocket went rocketing across the room into James' waiting hand. He unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth while Sirius replied on his behalf.

"You lot are being very distracting." He was purposely looking only at Remus and Peter but once Theia started giggling into her hand again, a smirk started breaking through his fake-stern expression.

Lily pointed her wand at Sirius and said the charm again under her breath, and his thick dragon hide bracelet landed neatly in her hand, and she tossed it to Theia. Mimicking the boys, Theia answered on Lily's behalf.

"Jealous much, Black?" She wished she knew how to wink so badly in that moment, but the best she could do was shake his bracelet at him and wiggle her eyebrows. She tied the scarlet and brown bracer around her wrist and with her head ducked she felt the chain around her neck tug. She looked up and met Sirius' determined grey eyes across the way; her eyes flashed momentarily and the locket froze mid-air, still safely clasped around her neck. "Nuh-uh. Not this one! This was a present from Leon." The plain silver locket fell limp against the front of her shirt and she reached to tuck it back under her clothes. Sirius scrunched his nose at her pickiness while the rest of them shot glances all around to make sure no one else caught the quick glint of white that had flashed in her eyes. Sirius adjusted his aim and stole Theia's loose tie, and secured it around his wrist where his bracelet had been.

"There, now the score is settled, Ravenclaw cheater."

"Cheater?!" Theia huffed, "I am not a cheater! How am I a cheater?"

"You stopped me from nicking your necklace! I didn't stop you from taking my bracelet!"

"As if you could have!" She scoffed. Everyone else was laughing at their well-natured bickering when a baritone voice broke through the air.

"Alright class! Thank you very much for your participation today, you've all excelled wonderfully." Professor Hectarus was standing in the middle of the clearing between the two lines of students and addressing them all in his normal, amiable manner. "Please do not neglect your reading over the holiday, as we will not be revisiting any of these topics when we resume. With that said, enjoy your break and Happy Christmas." He smiled warmly and his grey-dusted blonde locks reflected the candlelight of the classroom to give him an appearance of a faint halo. The illusion was quickly broken however when he suddenly stepped in front of Theia as she made to exit.

"You have detention with me the first Friday we return Miss Nyx, for inciting distractedness in my classroom and playing with a potentially harmful spell."

All the color drained from Theia's face as she looked up at her head of house with bulging eyes. Her mouth had ran dry instantly but she managed to stammer out a response, "Ye-yes sir."

"What!? Professor, no I started it!"

"Yeah, sir we were the ones that incited the distraction!"

James and Sirius had shoved up beside her, with Remus and Peter quick on their heels. They were already huffing with indignation over only Theia being singled out, but she was turning bright red and staring at her shoes too intensely to pay them much mind.

"Ah, ah, ah Mr. Potter, Mr. Black." he held up a hand to stop their continued rambling, "While I admire the nobility in your attempts to not let her take the fall by herself, and as exemplary members of Gryffindor, I expect nothing less from you, I saw It myself. And as a member of Ravenclaw house, I expect her to _know_ better. So Miss Nyx, Friday at 7 pm, you can meet me here."

Theia lifted her head and nodded, and Professor Hectarus stepped to the side and held his hand out to allow them to pass. She ducked quickly out of the classroom and was halfway down the hallway when everyone else caught up to hear her softly cursing.

"Shit... Shit. Shit. Shit. Damn it." She bit her lip on any more curses she wanted to say and kept a brisk pace down the corridor.

"Don't worry about it Ethee, it'll be fine."

"Yeah, honestly, his detentions are a breeze. He had me sort books alphabetically the last time. I was back in the dorm by 9." Peter had squeezed between James and Theia and was half running to keep ahead of the group's pace.

"'M so sorry Theia, I didn't think he had noticed. I shouldn't have fired back, that's probably what did it." Remus looked abashed and was taking long strides at the back of the group while he worried his hands at the scars on his face.

"C'mon Nyxie, we'll take you up to Gryffindor tower before the farewell feast, we have a chocolate stash for just such run-ins." James said soothingly, and Lily next to her squeezed her arm sympathetically. Theia was just shaking her head at herself and thinking about how Aunt Addie was definitely going to be upset with her, and Dumbledore might even reconsider letting her stay if she couldn't take her classes here seriously.

"It's alright guys, Harper and I will take her back to Ravenclaw tower. We'll go sit in a book-nook til dinner Theia, Harper will charm the lights and everything." Theia shrugged and nodded and finally found her voice again.

"Thanks guys, it's fine. I'll see you at dinner," James wrapped her in a one armed hug, and Remus rubbed her shoulder. "Save me a seat on the train tomorrow." She said and they all smiled and yelled various versions of 'of course!' at her exuberantly.

Lily and Harper kept her talking most of the way back to Ravenclaw tower, but Lily kept a close eye on the nervous ticks she was still trying to discreetly hide. When she saw the worry line furrowing across Theia's forehead, she leaned over and whisper lowly to her, "He's not going to kick you out Theia, you're a kid, it happens." Theia sniffed and pulled both her hands back over her head in frustration.

"Ugh, I know... I just... I still get nervous! I never had a detention at Ilvermony! And this is still only my first semester technically. I'm just annoyed at myself. It's dumb."

Harper slung an arm around her shoulders, "Don't worry about it Thei-thei, we wouldn't let him kick you out anyways."

That finally got a laugh from Theia, and Harper hid the blush in her cheeks by faking a cough into her elbow. The roots of her hair tinged a light pink however, none of the girls noticed the correlation.

"Thanks, you both are my little guardian angels." She linked both her arms through their's and squeezed them to herself.

"Pfft. Right." Harper postured and tried to play it off cool but her cheeks were still too warm for her to be comfortable making full eye contact yet.

By the time they reached the sphinx they were playfully chattering, all previous anxiety forgotten somewhere back in the cold castle corridors.

 **A/N: I am so indefinitely sorry about the abhorrently long wait for this chapter! But I'm hoping 6k words expresses just how much love I bear each and every soul that stuck around to read this one. I really hope you like it, as always feedback is welcome. And I do have a more solid idea for where to take the next couple chapters so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping to die that I can get them out faster. ;) Thank you!**

 **PS. "Thei-thei" is pronounced "thay-thay" in case anyone was wondering and/or confused about that.**


	7. Chapter 7 - Christmas Break 1973

**Chapter 7: Christmas Break 1973**

"Aunt Addie?" Theia swallowed hard as she stepped across the threshold of the sitting room in her aunt's cottage. Aunt Addie had been flitting around all morning, so the opportunity for Theia to come clean about her impending detention hadn't yet arisen, and it was weighing heavily on her mind.

"Yes dear?" The older woman peaked at her from over the top of her antique-looking spectacles, a momentary resemblance to another familiar, powerful wizard triggered Theia to double-take.

"I... uh... wanted to um... tell you something." Theia took a few steps forward until she was able to seat herself on the edge of the couch adjacent to Adrastea's arm chair. She used her manners as armor, she crossed her ankles beneath her and sat up as straight as her back would go. Noticing her niece's posture, Adrastea straightened herself up and furrowed her brow minutely.

"Is everything all right? Is something troubling you?"

"Well, yes. And yes… I... I- well I got a detention." With this confession, Adrastea's concern deflated almost entirely, and she allowed herself to relax. _With everything going on, thank Merlin. Detentions, I can handle._

"I see. From whom?"

"Professor Hectarus, he teaches Charms, and is Head of Ravenclaw House." Theia had fought and lost a battle against the urge to stare intently into her lap, but she kept herself talking, knowing that Aunt Addie needed to be kept informed. The pause between her quick explanation and Addie's response felt unusually delayed, which only exacerbated Theia's guilt.

"Was it worth it?"

Now that was a question Theia would never have anticipated in a million millennia. She looked up, sputtering.

"Wh-what?"

"Was it worth it? The reason he gave you detention, it was a worthwhile endeavor I imagine. You're a good girl, more mature than most your age, and you've been raised exceptionally well. So if you were to get caught and receive a detention, I can only hope that it was at least for a worthy cause." Adrastea arched a singular silver brow and let her eyes float back to the needlework she was charming in her lap.

Heat burned on Theia's cheeks thinking back to the child playfulness she had incited amongst her group of friends and realized this was most certainly _not_ a noble or worthwhile cause by any means, but it was also relatively benign. The flush of her cheeks was hint enough to Adrastea however, and she sighed with a touch of dramatics.

"Whatever am I going to do with you, child?" Theia's head snapped back down towards her lap again.

"I'm sorry Aunt Addie. It won't happen again." She muttered quietly.

"I believe you." Adrastea peaked down at her pocket watch, "Now, while I don't wish to reward you for improper behavior at school, your Christmas presents have already arrived. And although it is a few days early, I've never been an exceptionally patient woman."

Theia's forehead was wrinkled with confusion while her eyes followed the direction of Aunt Addie's gaze towards the door. She shot up in surprise and elation when a full-figured woman with strawberry blonde hair and freckled cheeks stepped out into the doorframe.

"Isla!" It took a second for Theia's legs to react and in the delay, Isla grinned wildly and spoke.

"In the flesh! And I've brought you an extra little something." From behind her form emerged a sweetly smiling Leon. Theia exploded with excitement and threw herself across the room at her brother.

"LEON!" She engulfed him in a hug and felt herself start to shake happy sobs into his shoulder. Little Leon had grown since she had last seen him in July, and while he was still smaller than her, she had to adjust herself to the new angle of their embrace. During his absence, she had shrunk him down in her mind to the cute little 5-year-old she had doted on as a child and seeing him look taller, scrawnier, and older threw her for a loop. He was laughing heartily and squeezed her torso tightly.

"Merry Christmas Teetee. We missed you."

Theia chuckled and leaned back out of the hug looking her little brother up and down to try and solidify him in her head. She landed back on those ocean blue eyes of his, which were complemented by his perpetually rosy cheeks.

"Merry Christmas Leon! And Isla!"

"Did we surprise you?" He looked so elated to see her that Isla and Adrastea couldn't help but chuckle at the two of them practically bouncing out of their skin in excitement. The sound reminded Theia to turn around and hug the both of them enthusiastically.

"Yes! I honestly can't believe you're even here! Are you allowed to be? I got that restraining order in October..." Theia's mind muddled through the messy breakdown she'd had when she received the letter but her face was determined to remain bright in the company of her two surprise visitors.

"Well that's an American restraining order," Isla began, a devilish grin spreading across her face, "and we just so happen to be a tad outside of their jurisdiction at the moment."

Theia scoffed and shook her head at her logic and decided the Slytherin qualities her lawyer-friend possessed definitely came in handy.

"Besides, the restraining order was vague enough to exclude Leon being barred from seeing you. Your Aunt and Uncle didn't have quite enough money to pay the judge off well enough for that." Isla winked slyly at her and nudged her shoulder with her fist, happy to be back in the company of the little witch after what felt like a long while.

As they all made their way back into the sitting room together, they settled in to catch up on everyone's lives. Leon had been successfully sorted into Wampus, which he was endlessly proud of. He had also joined the Boys Junior Quidditch team for Wampus and told Theia every story she could squeeze out of him about his try-outs, matches, and practices. Isla had left her job at the bank though she could still be found there on a regular basis, being the executor of Leon's allowance, having been appointed as such by Theia before she left. She was currently working at a wizarding law firm that specialized in familial disputes and child custody lawsuits. She absolutely loved her new job and was able to bring a passion for the children's best interest to work every day. Theia thought it suited her perfectly and was caught only slightly off-guard when Isla stuck out her left hand to show them all her sapphire engagement ring her new fiancé had given her. The girls all squealed in excitement while she shared the story of how they had met as competing lawyers on the same case, and how she had realized she was falling for him when she finally won the case and found herself more disappointed than anything else because she wouldn't have any more long, arduous negotiation meetings with him.

Theia and Adrastea were delighted to have company in the cottage and the group spent the majority of the night talking over cookies and tea by the fire in the sitting room. Theia resolved to bring Leon over to James' the next day to introduce him; she knew the two of them would be thick as thieves before the end of their first meeting.

The next morning, after the four of them had finished breakfast, Theia decided to bring Leon over to meet James. Adrastea had previously informed Euphemia about her plan to bring Leon and Isla over for Christmas as a surprise for Theia, so they told the siblings they would join them for lunch and tea later.

"Did you bring your broom with you?" Theia poked her head into Leon's guest bedroom.

Leon reached into the suitcase he had brought along and pulled out his full-sized broomstick from its depths, a bright grin beamed across his face. "Yup!"

"Perfect! Wanna walk through town or just fly over to James'?"

"Let's fly! I wanna show you how fast this thing is!" He lifted his brand new broom up in front of her for emphasis and they both proceeded to bounce down the stairs to the door.

"Bet you still can't outfly me!" Theia teased as she threw her navy and copper scarf around her neck and pulled a knit hat over the top of her head.

"You just wait, everyone knows boys are faster than girls!"

"Get real!" Theia scoffed and threw the front door open, greeted by the crisp winter air. Mercifully, the sun was out today so it would make for a good flying day over James' field. "Girls are known for being faster than boys, that's why so many professional seekers are girls!"

"Nuh-uh! That's just cause they can't take a hit and that's the safest position on the team." Leon was goading her purposefully, as playful arguing had been a bit of a past-time for them growing up. The boys-vs-girl debate was always their easiest, go-to subject that rarely ever escalated into a real fight.

"Puh-lease! Seekers are one of the most common targets for Beaters! It's the easiest way to ensure a win- to take out the seeker!"

They were flying around the outskirts of town, where they were the least likely to be spotted by anyone, bantering as they wove through trees. When they reached the Potter Estate, the path they had taken lead them straight to James' practice field, which he was already using with his father on this bright, cool morning.

"James!" Theia called out to him as her and Leon emerged from the tree line, "Mr. Potter! This is Leon! My brother!" She flew up alongside Mr. Potter on the ground to shake his hand and introduce Leon who was trailing slightly behind her." Leon dismounted as she did and also shook Fleamont's hand who was chuckling at Theia's animated affect.

"It's wonderful to meet you my boy! We've heard a lot about you!"

"Hey Leon! I'm James! I go to school with Ethee here!" James dismounted and pulled the goggles that kept his glasses from freezing or fogging over off his face to rest on top of his mangled black hair.

"Ethee?" Leon chuckled nervously, and threw a glance at Theia, who nodded slightly in response.

"Looks like you lot have the makings of a small scrimmage team! A keeper and two opposing chasers!" Fleamont jovially slapped his son on the shoulder, "I best be heading inside to see how your mother is coming along on the Christmas Eve Gala preparations. Nice to meet you Leon, our home is open to you anytime!"

With his departure, the rest of the group took to their brooms and began zooming around the field. Theia and James walked Leon through some chaser drills they each used on their teams and discussed the merits of each other's various broom models until they were called in for lunch with the adults.

By the end of the day, James and Leon were two peas in a pod, to the point where they spent the majority of their afternoon flying session playing keep-away from a playfully disgruntled Theia.

* * *

The hunger pangs had been clawing at Theia's stomach all day. As she laid in bed, trying to remember if they had at least ceased during meal times, Sirius Black's face swam in her vision.

 _Weird._

She shook her head to clear the thought but the more she focused on the hunger the more his face popped into her head. The strangest part was his expression, it was dark, full of bitterness and a twinge of sadness. But she hadn't ever seen her new friend in any sort of mood similar to that.

She decided to check the time after another half hour of tossing and turning.

 _12:15 AM._

For some reason the ether was pulling her out of bed. She could feel it tugging gently at a spot behind her belly button. She recognized that the sensation was a very muted version of how it felt to side-along apparate with her parents. Whatever it was, instinct was driving her to follow the tugs, to get up and see where it leads. With a huff of hunger-fueled frustration, she did just that.

The further she followed the tugging sensation the more she found herself acting without thought, doing things she hadn't decided to do. When she found herself in Aunt Addie's kitchen picking up the tin of cookies she had baked as Christmas treats for her friends, she wasn't necessarily surprised. She had been picking at food all day, and when her and Leon had made them, she had eaten a sizable portion of dough. But instinct, or the ether, she wasn't exactly sure yet, wasn't done with her there. She saw her hand gingerly open the front door of the cottage and she stepped out into the crisp December night. Logic then flooded her brain, perhaps aided by the frigid night air, and she dashed back inside to grab her coat and broomstick.

The tugging sensation led her to James' house and she retook control when it was time to enter the house. Instead of walking through the front door, the way her goal-directed instinct wanted to, she floated up to the second level of the house. She hovered in front of the window she was pretty sure was James and peaked through to double-check. Thankfully there were still embers burning in the fireplace that lit up the room enough for her to recognize the landmarks: his four-poster bed, wardrobe with the door still ajar, and Gryffindor paraphernalia galore.

 _Yep, this is it._

She tapped the window lightly with her nail. The lump on James' bed stirred slightly. She tapped again.

 _*Tick*tick*tick*_

The lump wiggled more. _*Tick*tick*tick*tick*_

She saw the silhouette of an arm reach out for the bedside table, fumbling for something. James reached his glasses and placed them on his bleary-eyed face. He reached for his wand and got up out of bed. Theia tapped twice more so he would know which window to go to, and waved when he finally looked out at her.

He slid the window open, "Ethee? Are you alright? What are you doing outside?"

"Can I come in please?" She shivered for emphasis. He pushed the window up as far as it would go and stepped to the side so she could climb in. She tucked herself down onto the broom and glided through the opening. "Thanks James." She ran her hands up her arms for friction and remembered the tin of cookies she was holding. "I've been hungry all day. I think something is wrong."

"Maybe you're growing. I'm hungry a lot too sometimes." James voice was groggy as he rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses to clear them.

"Umm… no, I haven't grown in like a year. This is different." She huddled low with her back to the glowing embers and was pleasantly surprised to find they still burned hot enough to warm her. _Probably an enchantment on the fireplace_ , she thought absentmindedly. James waited patiently for her to continue, more awake now and growing slightly concerned. "Have you ever apparated with your parents?" She whispered.

"Yeah, Dad took me to the train station like that after last year's Christmas holiday. I almost spewed and mom nearly killed him since I had new trainers on."

"I feel that tugging sensation…"

"Right now?"

"Yeah, " Her hand went to her belly button just to make sure it hadn't been pulled out yet.

"You can't apparate though, can you?" James eyes widened.

"No," she shook her head, "It would be insane of me to try anyways."

James took a measured breath in and knelt down to whisper, as if they'd be overheard by forces unseen, "Do you think it's the ether?"

An instinctive "yes" flooded her mind and she nodded affirmatively.

"What should we do? Do you know what it wants?" He whispered again, gently touching her hand on her lap.

"To follow it, I think. If I stop thinking, it'll take me where it wants me to be. But I'm too scared to apparate."

"Then don't." James said more loudly as if the Ether could hear him standing up to it and would leave his friend alone. Sirius' face swam up in front of her mind's eye again, this time pinched with unseen pain.

"I think it wants me to go to Sirius." She said, looking up at James. "And give him these I guess." She tilted the tin of cookies and heard them slide around inside. James looked down at the tin, his brows pulling together as he concentrated.

"You don't know where Sirius' house is." He stated plainly, "And I've never been there either."

He stood back up to his full height, perhaps an inch or so taller than he had been when she had first met him back at the beginning of June. He held his hand out to help her up and started leading her towards the door.

"Where are we going?" She whispered, confused.

"To the kitchen."

The sensory overload Theia was grappling with kept her silent as they padded down the stairs and hallways that lead to James' kitchen. It wasn't until she crossed the threshold into the room that it occurred to her that the kitchen would still be occupied at this time of night, by house-elves of course.

"Master James!" Bibsy, James' favorite elf, piped up from across the room, "What is you doing up? And with a friend? You left earlier Miss Theia?" Bibsy's large ears were pricked with curiosity and his giant greenish-gray eyes brimmed with equal parts concern and confusion.

She could feel the tugging sensation was strong now, pulling her towards the elf, who could apparate to and from just about anywhere…

"Bibsy, do you or any of the other elves know where the Bl-"

"Does elf magic allow you through protective charms?" Theia blurted out over James, who looked flabbergasted by her question.

"Yes Miss. House elves have to be able to call on their masters wherever they is, mum."

"Even residences you've never been to before?" She was breathless in anticipation of relief from this incessant hunger and pulling.

"Y-yes, miss." Bibsy looked concerned for this poor young witch's health, to be asking such odd questions at such a late hour.

"Can you bring someone with you?" Theia's eyes were alight with more than just excitement now, she could feel the ether tingling in them, knowing it was when her eyes were getting ready to burst out pure white light.

"I… I…" Bibsy looked nervously at James.

"Can you?" He mirrored, more calmly than Theia expected.

"Yes." Bibsy said meekly. "Where is Miss Theia be wanting to go?"

Theia's brow furrowed. She could feel that she knew where to go, but obviously if Bibsy was going to apparate them she was going to have to describe it in perfect detail… which she couldn't do. She glanced up suddenly at the floo in the corner of the kitchen that the elves and other serving staff used to bring in larger batches of food or supplies.

"If we floo together, but I say the place, will your magic still grant us passage into the house?"

"If I be throwing the powders, Miss."

She nodded and looked up at James, who surprisingly had still been holding her hand. He let go, his eyes were hard and determined.

"Sirius never says anything specific, but everyone knows their house is a dark place. Unfriendly at best, how my mother once put it."

"Trust me." Theia's voice was caught in her throat, the pulling sensation so strong it was overcoming her with anticipation and nerves. Her stomach gurgled loudly to remind everyone it was still there. _Or trust the ether… because I have no idea what I'm doing._

Theia and Bibsy lined up in front of the floo side-by-side. Now knowing where he was going, Bibsy looked understandably more nervous; the House of Black had a sinister reputation amongst house elves. James stood off to the side, glancing back and forth between the fire and the two small figures in front of it.

"Teetee, where are you going?" A small voice broke through the tension in the air.

Leon was standing in the doorway, clutching his broom, still wearing his plaid pajamas and fur-lined slippers he had gone off to bed in earlier that evening.

"Leon!" How on earth…? What are you doing? You followed me?" Theia could feel her eyes bulging, staring at her little brother looking tiny in the doorway.

"I heard the front door open…" Theia instantly remembered Leon's preference for sleeping with his door open, and that his guest bedroom was at the top of the stairs leading to the foyer and front entrance of Aunt Addie's cottage. "And I saw you flying away when I checked out the window."

" How did you get in here though?" James piped up, trying not to chuckle at how similar he and Leon apparently were, this was a very James thing to do, as Remus might say.

"I came here cause I figured you might know where she went." Leon responded, taking his first steps across the threshold into the room, "When I saw your window open, I followed you two down here just as you were leaving." Leon suddenly remembered to look abashed and turned his dark blue eyes down at the floor. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to intrude, I was just worried about Theia."

Theia's heart thudded in sympathetic pain, all other urges and influences pushed from the forefront of her mind. James beat her to an answer, however.

"It's perfectly alright. I would have done the same."

James had already begun to think of Theia as the sibling he had wanted growing up alone in this big house, and at the moment he was worried for her and what her weird powers were compelling her to do. So he could only imagine how her actual brother felt.

"I'm sorry Leon, I didn't mean to scare you."

James could see the flecks of white still sparkling around the rim of her normally deep brown eyes. When she held her hand out towards Leon and he stepped forward into her hug, he saw Leon recognize it too, and they locked eyes momentarily as Theia released him.

Once Theia finally turned around with Bibsy to step into the floo, James and Leon stood abreast watching them both with reserved anxiety. Bibsy threw the powder into the flames with shaky hands, and bright white light flooded Theia's irises. She spoke firmly and clearly, a slight echo resonating in her voice from the magic of the ether compelling her words.

"Sirius Black."

In the wake of the green whoosh of flames, the silence of the kitchen was deafening.

"When I was younger I asked my dad why Theia's eyes glowed like that."

Leon was still staring hard into the fireplace after his sister's shadow. James stole a glance at his small, solemn face.

"He said she was special, a special type of sister. And special things always had a knack for finding danger, or danger finding them." James eyebrows flicked up, listening closely. "He said I had to help take care of her, because she was destined to take care of everyone else."

* * *

 _Less than 8 hours now. 7 hours and 56 minutes, approximately…_

The dark grey canopy of his bed reflected the amber glow from his fading fire poorly. If he squinted he could almost trick his brain that it looked almost red and gold, like the drapes waiting for him in his dorm at Hogwarts. That's where he should be. He should have ignored Regulus' letter imploring him to come home with him for Christmas. _Well Reg hadn't technically implored… he had suggested it, more or less._ He had sent a note to him detailing Mother's instructions on how to return home from King's Cross. It had been guilt over his little brother walking through London alone on his first holiday home from Hogwarts that had forced him to join. The guilt wasn't reciprocal he guessed, since Regulus appeared to have no qualms ignoring him when his parents started fights and locked him in his room without any proper meals other than the broth Kreature would bring once a day.

 _7 hours 51 minutes._

Sirius flung his pocket watch to the end of his bed. He hoped by the time he mustered enough energy to check it again, more than 5 minutes will have passed.

With a 'whoosh' from across his room, the light on his canopy suddenly shifted to bright green and a small part of his brain flinched away in fear. He heard two sets of feet hit the stone of his hearth and looked up to see Theia with her glowing white eyes sinking back into the deep brown they usually were. She was holding the hand of an anxious-looking house else he didn't recognize.

If he'd had the energy, he would have laughed. He was pathetic. It had only been three days and he was already having full-on hallucinations! _What a nutter!_ Unless Kreature had poisoned the broth perhaps. Both were equal possibilities.

It wasn't until she actually cleared her throat and whispered a soft, "Merry Christmas Sirius," had he considered she and the elf were anything but a figment of his food-deprived imagination. When the sound passed her lips and filled his otherwise silent room, all he could do was blink and rub at his eyes.

"It's only been three days…" He mumbled and tried to keep himself from believing she actually was there, "it's too early for hallucinations."

He glanced at her again, this time her eyebrows were pulled together, she mirrored the confusion he felt. The elf was glancing around nervously, eyeing the door with his ears pricked to listen for anyone approaching in the hallway.

No one would hear it if Sirius lit a bomb off in his room. His mother had hurled a silencing charm at his door after she'd locked him in, to keep him from disturbing the rest of the house. Nonetheless when realization hit that neither of the small figures standing in front of the fire were hallucinations, his heart catapulted into his throat, fear firing him up from his reclined position despite his exhaustion.

"Ethee?!" His hand flew to his forehead as his vision swam from the sudden movement. "What on Merlin's green earth…" He felt the blood rush down out of his face and he struggled to regain his composure.

She still watched him from across his room, when his eyes resumed their normal functioning, she looked concerned and… unsure. Her voice was steady and hushed, however.

"I brought you part of your gift." She held up a tin he hadn't noticed in her other hand, its contents rattled faintly. She walked over to where he sat up on the side of his bed. Briefly, she glanced at the empty bowl and discarded spoon from this morning's broth. The illogical thought that he was sorry he didn't have any left to share with her popped into his head before being promptly squashed by the overwhelming scent of cookies when she opened the lid of the tin and offered it to him.

His hunger consumed his mind for a brief second and his stomach gargled loudly in anticipation. A shadow of a smirk lifted up the corner of her mouth. Once he had gulped down two and a half cookies, he took a pause to breathe, and remembered his momentary anxiety upon seeing her in his house.

"How did you get in here?" His eyes roved over her shrouded form, looking for evidence of maiming or subtle tracings of the curses that should have eviscerated both of the uninvited guests. His voice sounded weaker than he would have liked and it felt slightly disconnected from him. Theia answered easily despite this.

"Bibsy brought me." She whispered, "House elves can go through protective charms." She gestured at the wary, but relatively healthy-looking elf still standing within three feet of his fireplace. He had the proper amount of fear in his face for being inside this cursed place. Not a single feature on Theia's face seemed to be touched by it. Sirius was reminded to take another deep breath.

"It isn't safe," He managed to croak out. He looked up from his feast and found Theia's brown eyes looking at him. He could see the cogs turning in her mind but had no idea what was going through her head at this moment. He reached for her hand and mustered his strength to stand up. "You can't stay… if my parents catch you… If my mother catches you…" He could feel the pallor consume his face at the thought of Theia on the other end of his mother's cruel wand. He walked her back towards the fireplace slowly, and watched her eyes roam over his room from the corner of his vision.

"I know I can't stay long." Theia shot a quick look at the house elf named Bibsy, who looked ready to jump headlong through the floo. "I'll send along the rest of your present… Will you be alone in your room tomorrow do you think?" She questioned gently.

He nodded and said, "Breakfast is at 9." He grimaced minutely at the idea of that Merlin-forsaken broth being considered 'breakfast' but it technically was his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He left that out though.

"Okay..." She whispered so softly, he wasn't sure if she had just mouthed the word but she left something unsaid. Sirius didn't have the wherewithal to catch her drift, he could however feel the unspoken words hang in the air momentarily before he cleared his throat. He remembered his manners, and that he was supposed to be the nonchalant one.

"Thank you Ethee," He conjured a smile, "Try not to miss me too much before we get back to Hogwarts."

She scoffed and his chest swelled the tiniest bit, it was a pleasant sound.

"Take care of yourself Sirius. See you soon."

Her mouth still had an amused smirk playing at the edges of it, but her eyes looked resolutely serious. He nodded back instead of verbally replying, not trusting himself to come up with anything else clever enough to make her smile or laugh.

The house elf had grabbed her hand and a handful of floo powder from a small bag hidden beneath his apron. He squeaked, "Potter Manor!" and disappeared through the green flames with Theia in tow.

Sirius stared blankly into the dark red embers where his unexpected guests had vanished. She had left a warm scent behind, he mused distractedly, and then recalled the tin of cookies waiting on his bed. He made a dive for them, having decided midair to eat at least a few more before rationing out the rest for the remainder of his imprisonment.

He finally melted into a restful sleep after having properly hid his stash. All thought of his broth countdown forgotten for the time being.

* * *

"They're starving him!" She blurted out as her feet made contact with James' kitchen floor.

James and Leon had been sitting at a nearby counter with milk and a platter of cookies in front of them. James was quicker to respond, his quidditch reflexes spurred into action as he jumped up, and the stool he had been seated on clattered to the floor behind him.

"What?! I knew he shouldn't have gone home! Is he alright? How long has it been?" His words tumbled out in rapid fire, blending together incomprehensibly, or so Leon thought. Theia was used to James' high speed speech however, and she answered nearly as quickly.

"He mumbled something about three days when I walked in, he thought he was hallucinating…" Realization dawned slowly as she paused for breath, "He thought he was hallucinating and said it was too early to be, which means they've done this before… to the point he hallucinated." She felt a wave of angry nausea well up inside of her.

A fiery rage was ignited in Theia's chest and it was mirrored in James' dark expression. Leon was still trying to catch his breath in the chaos, he was just relieved she had come back in one seemingly unharmed piece.

"Okay, so what do we do?" Leon finally spoke up while the other two stewed in their speechless anger.

"Get him the hell out of there." James mumbled darkly. Theia on the other hand, knew he wouldn't be easy to rescue. If they gave away their access to Sirius' room by springing him free through the floo while his family thought he was locked inside, it may be impossible for anyone to get back through when he would inevitably have to go back home. James' frustration and fear for his friend swirled in the air around him, Theia could taste his bitter anger as it mingled with hers.

"Before we can figure out that, we need to make sure he doesn't starve to death." She said, "Which means we'll have to send him more food than just those cookies the ether propelled me to bring him." James eyes sparked with hope and a plan, they shot towards Bibsy who was still standing close by. He was huddled up and whispering with the other house elves, telling his harrowing story about being inside the notorious Black Family house, and they were all enraptured to hear of the disarray he had seen and the feeling of doom that had enveloped the air in there.

"Bibsy, now that you know how to get in, could you go back the same way?" James asked.

"Yes Master James." He squeaked, his bravery bolstered by the admiration of his peers for bringing the young witch there and back safely.

"Okay, tomorrow morning you'll need to bring Sirius a platter of food. The heartiest stuff you can carry."

"Wait, wait, wait…" Theia mulled over the possible complications of this operation in her mind. She saw dark visions swim in and out of focus, unsure if they were her imagination running amok or the ether showing her glimpses of real possibilities. "If we go during the daytime and his family catches us…" She swallowed hard against the pictures of Bibsy's mutilated form overwhelming her minds' eye.

"You said yourself he can't just have the cookies you brought him, Ethee. We have no way of knowing how long they'll starve him."

"Exactly! If they release him and are in his room when we come to deliver his food, who knows how they'll react! Not just towards us, but him! He'll still be stuck there! If they're willing to starve him for whatever, just think what they would do to him in reaction to us breaking into his room." The bite of her words was harsher than she intended, her exhaustion and frustration were getting the better of her ability to control her tone of voice. She winced mildly and James took a deep breath and nodded in agreement with her.

Leon was watching the two of them raptly, his eyes bounced back and forth between them as they volleyed their fast-paced speech at each other. England seemed nuts to him, that parents could act so cruelly without consequence confused him utterly. _Weren't there rules here? Aurors that could get Sirius' parents in trouble for starving him? Couldn't they just take him away?_ He trusted Theia's judgment though, especially since he could see faint rings of white light around her chocolate irises. She would be guided the right way, his job was to follow her and watch her back along the way. His father's stern yet loving face appeared in his mind and for a second he was choked up with pain and longing.

"We need a way to know when it would be safe to bring him food…" Theia was staring off into space and James was pacing as he mulled over options for a plan.

"The two-way mirror!" Theia's stoic expression burst to life. "I was gonna give it to Lily so she wouldn't have to worry about owls flying around her Nomaj neighborhood! But we could give one to Sirius and one to you so we could coordinate bringing him food when the coast is clear at his house!"

"The what?" James wore a fairly typical expression of equal parts bewilderment and excitement.

"It's a new thing in America." Leon answered, excited he could finally contribute to the conversation. "It's for wizards who live in Nomaj places where you can't use owls to send letters. It's a set of two mirrors that can talk to each other. You can see the person's face and everything."

"That's perfect! Do you have them?" The way the night was going James half expected Theia to produce the set of mirrors from her pajamas, but her crestfallen expression told him otherwise.

"I'll go get it and we'll send it tonight so that he can wake up and use it tomorrow morning." Theia's hair floated behind her as she flew into action. She retraced her steps to James' room, mounted her broom and whisked back to Aunt Addie's cottage as fast as it would carry her. The frigid December air bit at her exposed skin and she strained to see through the tears stinging her eyes from the wind. Once she arrived she remembered the necessity to be deathly quiet and snuck back into her room. She rummaged through her trunk with everyone's Christmas presents and grabbed the mirrors she was supposed to be sending to Lily along with Sirius' original present. It had also been an American thing she had ordered from home: a special invisible ink that would only appear upon a witch or wizard touching their wand to the paper and saying an incantation. It was mostly a neat commodity given to school boys who wanted to play at being spies, but she hadn't seen it anywhere in Hogwarts or Diagon Alley and had thought Sirius would have a grand old time passing invisible notes in class. She wasn't sure it would come in handy in this particular instance, but she figured she might as well send it along anyways.

She crossed the threshold of James' kitchen looking as windswept as she ever had been. Her fingers felt numb and tingly but clutched the package of mirrors and ink tightly nonetheless. James and Leon hadn't been idle, they were rummaging through the cabinets for more food to pack onto a tray sitting on the counter they had previously been waiting at. It was already piled high with food that wouldn't go bad: crackers, nuts, dried fruits, and even a couple tins of mushroom pate.

"Bibsy said he could enchant the tray to be camouflaged so anyone who isn't staring directly at it won't be able to really see it!" Leon spoke excitedly once he heard Theia's return. James maintained focus on the task of rifling through all of his kitchen cabinets for food to send his best friend and didn't look up to examine the parcels she had brought back until everything he could find was on the tray.

The mirrors were a novel thing but weren't excessively fascinating once Theia handed him one of the pair for him to examine. It was rather plain, no frame or back mounting, just a rectangular mirror with beveled edges. She quickly unwrapped the matching one and held it up in front of her face.

"James!" She spoke clearly, the exclamation sounded half like a command and half like a calling.

Her face suddenly appeared on his mirror from the point of view of the mirror she was holding.

"Wicked!" James exclaimed, he was grateful for his quidditch reflexes since they allowed him to keep grip on the small mirror in the heat of his excited reaction.

"They're really straightforward. You just have to be holding the mirror or touch your wand to it if you have it mounted on a wall and speak. On the other side, it will show your face and once someone steps in front of it, they'll appear on yours." She turned her mirror towards Leon who was standing next to her, and his face suddenly appeared in front of James mirror, though the background between their faces remained the same reflection of the wall behind him. "You can't see the other person's background, for privacy's sake." Theia answered his unspoken question.

"Americans are bonkers. This is great." James was beaming from ear to ear. This would most definitely be the key to many successful pranks to come, but most importantly would make this operation of keeping Sirius fed until they could figure out how to get him out of his house run smoothly. There was also Sirius' pride to consider. This was disguised as a gift, and wouldn't make Sirius feel entirely helpless or like he was burdening his friends with danger while they tried to keep him fed. He was never one to ask for help or want to inconvenience any of his friends, which is probably why if it hadn't been for Theia's instinct, or the ether, James suspected he would have suffered alone and wouldn't have brought it up once he got back to Hogwarts. No this was perfect, he wouldn't feel like he was putting anybody out and they could still get him what he needs safely.

Theia quickly rewrapped the mirror and as soon as she pulled it away from Leon's face, the transmission ended on James' mirror. She looked over the items on the tray and wrinkled her brow.

"Is there a case or box we put all this stuff in? Is Bibsy going to be able to carry all of it?" She asked worriedly. The last thing they needed was the house elf dropping the tray of food somewhere in the floo and making a mess of their link to Sirius' room.

"Won't be a trouble to Bibsy, miss! I is carrying all sorts of parcels and sorts through the floo." Bibsy spoke up. He quickly picked up the tray in one hand and took the mirror from her and the ink bottle to tuck into a hidden pocket beneath his apron. She smiled kindly at him for putting her mind at ease and they all stepped forward with him towards the floo. This time he didn't require Theia to speak Sirius' name or address, since he had made the connection once, he was able to state the room and residence as he normally would to deliver him safely through the floo. James, Theia, and Leon all held their breath while he was gone, silently hoping he would come back unscathed. He was gone for maybe a full minute before the flames turned green again and he stepped back through the floo. The sight of their three small worried faces warmed his heart and made him grateful to serve such a kind wizarding family.

"How did it go?" Theia swallowed her fear and regained her voice the quickest.

"Perfect!" Bibsy squeaked triumphantly, "He was sleeping when I's returned, so I put the mirror and ink on his desk miss, and stashed the tray under his beds."

"Brilliant Bibsy, you're the best." James congratulated his favorite house elf with a hearty pat on the shoulder.

"You threes should be going back to sleeps now!" Bibsy piped up once they had reveled in the success of the first portion of their plan. Leon responded with a resounding yawn and they all took that as their cue to follow Bibsy's instructions. Theia and Leon followed James back up to his room, and departed quickly on their brooms. They agreed to hash out how they would rescue Sirius from his house tomorrow during the day when the two Nyx siblings would inevitably come over for tea or lunch or just to practice quidditch. Once all three of their heads touched their respective pillows, they were out like lights. Though notably only one of them had ever-evolving dreams throughout her sleep showing visions of things past, present, and even a few glimpses of the possibilities that lie ahead.

* * *

 **A/N: Wooooh... so it's been well over a year... I have to admit I really struggled with this one. Writing and rewriting the middle part, changing POV's, writing an alternative ending, erasing it, writing another, erasing THAT, and starting over entirely can really make a year fly by. I mean, so do clinical rotations and finally graduating/interviewing for my first job in my dream career, but that's neither here nor there.**

 **I have been seeing the reviews during my hiatus and each one touched my heart, so I want to thank everyone who takes the time to leave one. They are without a doubt the number one driving factor in me ever finishing this damn thing. I will try to be better, I am still madly in love with this story, and don't want to lose hold of the vision I still have for it. Thanks for the patience, and enjoy!**


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